Michael Schumacher . . .


Biography . . .

Michael Schumacher is a former Formula One driver, and seven-time world champion. According to the official Formula One website, he is ''statistically the greatest driver the sport has ever seen''. He is the first German to win the Formula One World championship and is credited with popularising Formula One in Germany. In a 2006 FIA survey, Michael Schumacher was voted the most popular driver among Formula One fans.

After winning two championships with Benetton, Schumacher moved to Ferrari in 1996 and won five consecutive drivers' titles with them. Schumacher holds many records in Formula One, including most drivers' championships, race victories, fastest laps, pole positions, points scored and most races won in a single season. On September 10, 2006, Schumacher announced his retirement as a driver. Schumacher is currently assisting Scuderia Ferrari.

Schumacher planned to return to F1 racing for the 2009 European Grand Prix as a replacement for injured Ferrari driver Felipe Massa. However, it then became apparent that he was not fit enough to race due to a neck injury he sustained during a German Superbike test earlier in the year.

Off the track, Schumacher is an ambassador for UNESCO and a spokesman for driver safety. He has been involved in numerous humanitarian efforts throughout his life. He is the older brother of retired Toyota driver Ralf Schumacher.

In August 1995, Michael married Corinna Betsch. They have two children, Gina-Maria (born in 1997) and Mick (born in 1999). He has always been very protective of his private life and is known to dislike the celebrity spotlight, preferring a simple life. The family currently lives near Gland, Switzerland. Their home is a 650 mē mansion with its own underground garage and petrol station, situated on a private beach on Lake Geneva. The family has two dogs - one stray that Corinna fell in love with in Brazil, and an Australian Shepherd named "Ed" whose entrance to the family made headlines.

In 2005 Eurobusiness magazine identified Schumacher as the world's first billionaire athlete. His 2004 salary was reported to be around US$80 million. Forbes magazine ranked him 17th in their "The World's Most Powerful Celebrities" list. He donated $10 million for aid after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. His donation surpassed that of any other sports person, most sports leagues, many worldwide corporations and even some countries.

Schumacher plays football for his local team FC Echichens. He has appeared in several football charity games and organised games between Formula One drivers. Schumacher is a special ambassador to UNESCO and has donated 1.5 million Euros to the organization. Additionally, he paid for the construction of a school for poor children and for area improvements in Dakar, Senegal. He supports a hospital for child victims of war in Sarajevo, which specialises in caring for amputees. In Lima, Peru he funded the "Palace for the Poor", a centre for helping homeless street children obtain an education, clothing, food, medical attention, and shelter. He stated his interest in these various efforts was piqued both by his love for children and the fact that these causes had received little attention. While an exact figure for the amount of money he has donated throughout his life is unknown, it is known that in his last four years as a driver, he donated at least $50 million.

Since his participation in a FIA European road safety campaign, as part of his punishment after the collision at the 1997 European Grand Prix, Schumacher has continued to support other campaigns, such as Make Roads Safe, which is led by the FIA Foundation and calls on G8 countries and the UN to recognise global road deaths as a major global health issue.

Schumacher provided the voice of a Rosso Corsa Ferrari F430 in Disney-Pixar's animated feature film Cars. In early March 2006, it was reported that Schumacher will play a small role in the movie Asterix at the Olympic Games. On 21 June 2009, Schumacher appeared on BBC2's motoring programme Top Gear as The Stig. The BBC has since admitted that Michael Schumacher is not the regular Stig and was there on that occasion because Ferrari would not allow anyone else to drive the Ferrari FXX which was featured in the show.

The above information is courtesy of Wikipedia.org.


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