Michael Schumacher

So this weekend's Brazilian GrandPrix marks the end of an era in that Michael Schumacher, the most successful driver in Formula One history will hang up his helmet for the second and last time. The 43 year old German made his debut with the Jordan GrandPrix team at thee 1991 Belgian GrandPrix in Spa.

Schumacher failed to finish the race as he retired with a clutch problem. For the following race in Monza, Italy Schumacher was snapped up by Flavio Briatore and the Benetton Ford team where he finished an impressive 5th place, picking up two points. For the following race in Portugal Schumacher finished in 6th place.

Schumacher picked up his first podium finish in Formula One when he finished in third place at the Mexican GrandPrix. He went on to take his first F1 win with Benetton at the 1992 Belgian GrandPrix. So in his first full season in Formula One he finished in third in the championship.

In 1993, Schumacher won his second race for Benetton when he won in Portugal.

Schumacher won his first Formula One championship in 1994, for Benetton taking 8 wins out of 16 race's winning in Brazil, Pacific, San Marino, Monaco, Canada, France, Hungary and Europe. He beat Damon Hill to the title by one point.

In 1995, Scumacher won his second world title for Benetton, that year he took 8 victories. The 1996 season saw Michael Schumacher leave Benetton along with Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne as they trio headed to Ferrari. They were joined at the team by Eddie Irvine who joined from Jordan. 1996 was somewhat of a transition period for Ferrari and Schumacher with the German taking only three victories due to poor reliability from the Italian team. Despite the problems Schumacher finished in the championship in third place.

1997 was going to be a great year for Ferrari and Schumacher as he challenged Jacques Villeneuve and Williams for the championship. Ferrari were looking for their first champion since 1979. Schumacher brought the title down to the wire in Jerez however at the end of the race Schumacher was foud to have deliberately crashed with Villeneuve taking both driver's out and giving Schumacher the title. So as a result Schumacher was excluded from the championship and Villeneuve won the title.

In 1998, Schumacher fought with McLaren's Mika Hakkinen for the championship and was once again caught up in controversy when he stormed down the pit-lane in Spa following a collision with David Coulthard and attempted to punch the Scotsman who happened to be wearing his helmet at the time.

In 1999, everyone thought that Scumacher would be challenging Hakkinen for the championship, however the German only took two wins and was forced to miss six GrandPrix after breaking his leg following a heavy crash in Silverstone, despite this he managed to finish fifth in the championship.

The year 2000 was the first year of Ferrari dominance and for this season Schumacher had a new team mate in Rubens Barrichello as Eddie Irvine moved to the newly formed Jaguar Racing team. This year Schumacher and Ferrari were utterly dominant taking 9 wins and beating Mika Hakkinen to the championship.

Schumacher went on to win the championship from 2001 - 2004. He was beaten title in 2005 and 2006 by Fernando Alonso and Renault. Schumacher retired from Formula One at the end of 2006 and was replaced for 2007 by Kimi Raikkonen who won the championship for Ferrari that year. Schumacher stayed with Ferrari as a 'Consultant' for 2007.

By the time Schumacher retired in 2006 he had won a total of 91 GrandPrix and was on pole position a total of 68 times. He was on pole position in Monaco this year but was given a grid penalty.

At the end of the 2009 season following Jenson Button and Brawn winning both title's JB moved to McLaren and Ross Brawn announced that he had sold his Brawn GP team to Mercedes and had signed Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg for the 2010 season. Schumacher had signed a three year deal.

His comeback has for the most part been unsuccessful. At the Hungarian GrandPrix in 2010 he very nearly took out Rubens Barrichello he has also been involved in an number of other incident's the most recent with Jenson Button in Austin at the weekend. He had slight success this season when he finished  on the podium in third place in Valencia behind Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen.  Schumacher has retired from 7 races so far this season.

Will he end his career with a points finish for Mercedes AMG this weekend? We don't have long to wait. In conclusion, Schumacher was a fantastic driver during his first 'career' in Formula One and in my opinion he has done himself no favours by coming back into the sport because in my opinion, in years to come Schumacher will be remembered for his second career in the sport and it's failure and not the first career.