Schumacher's chequered history

By Andrew Benson Motorsport editor Schumacher's career has been clouded by controversy Michael Schumacher is no stranger to controversy, and his banishment to the back of the grid in Monaco is far from the first time he has been accused of underhand behaviour. The German's career has been littered with similar incidents, where rivals have accused him of going beyond the bounds of fair play. Here, we highlight just some of the controversial events in which Schumacher has been involved in F1. AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX, 1994 With the world championship at stake, Schumacher's Benetton slid wide and into the wall while trying to stay ahead of title rival Damon Hill's Williams. Hill said he was "left cold" by Schumacher's attitude to fair play Schumacher rejoined the track with a damaged car and Hill, who had not seen the German's error, attemped to pass him at the next corner. Schumacher turned in on the Williams, putting both cars out of the race and sealing his first world title. Hill wrote in a subsequent book: "There are two things that set Michael apart from the rest of the drivers in Formula One - his sheer talent and his attitude. "I am full of admiration for the former, but the latter leaves me cold." EUROPEAN GRAND PRIX 1997 Another title decider, another collision. Williams driver Jacques Villeneuve would win the championship if he beat Schumacher, now with Ferrari, in the final race of the season at Jerez in Spain. Schumacher faces a grilling following his punishment in 1997 Heading into the closing stages of the race, Villeneuve was closing on Schumacher and attempted to pass him at the end of the track's back straight. Again, Schumacher turned in on his rival, but this time it backfired. Schumacher's car was left beached in a gravel trap, while Villeneuve continued to finish third and win the title. F1's governing body later stripped Schumacher of his second place in the championship, although it allowed all his results from that season to stand in the record books. ARGENTINE GRAND PRIX 1998 Schumacher barges Coulthard out of the lead in Argentina in 1998 Schumacher barged David Coulthard's McLaren out of the lead in the opening laps by forcing his own front wheel inside Coulthard's rear halfway around a hairpin and moving his rival car aside. To Coulthard's consternation, Schumacher was not punished. BELGIAN GRAND PRIX 2000 Battling for the lead at 200mph, Schumacher moved aggressively across on Mika Hakkinen's McLaren as the Finn tried to pass. Their wheels touched, but - fearing an accident - Hakkinen backed off, passing the Ferrari for the lead a lap later. When the drivers climbed out of their cars after the race, Hakkinen took Schumacher to one side and left him in no doubt that he took a dim view of the Ferrari driver's on-track ethics. In a news conference a few minutes later, Schumacher denied he had done anything wrong. EUROPEAN GRAND PRIX 2001 Even Schumacher's brother has felt the sheer force of his determination to win. Michael Schumacher made a poor start to the 2001 European Grand Prix at Germany's Nurburgring, while brother Ralf was much faster away in his Williams. To stop his brother passing, Michael veered across the track at him, leaving Ralf with the choice of backing off or risk being forced into the wall. He backed off. AUSTRIAN GRAND PRIX 2002 Schumacher benefits from team orders to win the 2002 Austrian GP Ferrari caused outcry when they ordered Schumacher's team-mate Rubens Barrichello to move aside on the last lap, gifting Schumacher victory in a race the Brazilian had dominated. The team were fined $1m and team orders "contrary to the interests of competition" were later banned from F1. BRITISH GRAND PRIX 2003 Trying to defend his position from Renault driver Fernando Alonso on the opening lap, Schumacher moved across on the Spaniard at the fastest part of the track. Although Alonso did not back off, Schumacher continued to move across, forcing half the Renault on to the grass at 190mph. He escaped punishment.

Schumacher's tainted legacy

Report: Schumacher to quit at end of year By Andrew Benson Motorsport editor Michael Schumacher will head into retirement at the end of this season as the most successful Grand Prix driver of all time, but whether he will be regarded as the greatest is another matter altogether. On pure talent and accomplishments alone, Schumacher belongs in the same bracket as the very best in the history of the sport - the likes of Juan Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Gilles Villeneuve, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna. Schumacher's talent is widely admired, less so his morals But greatness is about more than ability and trophies. It is also about character and integrity, and that is where Schumacher's claim falls down. Many of Schumacher's greatest races - breathtaking against-the-odds performances such as his victories at Barcelona 1996, Belgium 1997, Hungary 1998 and Canada 2003 - will go down in the annals of the sport. Feature: Schumacher's chequered history Turning Ferrari, with the help of a few key lieutenants, from a legendary name famous mostly for failure into the most efficient winning machine in F1 history is another remarkable achievement. And many other, less well known, snapshots of his genius have been afforded to those privileged to have watched him from close quarters at Grands Prix. This writer, for example, still marvels at how he wrestled his pig of a Ferrari onto the front row of the grid in Argentina in 1996. Schumacher has helped turn Ferrari into a winning machine These are memories that will live forever - of one of the finest drivers in history transcending the limits of his car and the conditions to produce moments of the purest sporting genius. On a personal level, too, I have no problem with Schumacher. He might be hard to get to one-to-one, but once you pin him down he is always affable, pleasant and helpful. But with all the wonder of Schumacher's talent, and his down-to-earth private persona, comes a dark side. The two are inseparable. And that is what tarnishes his legacy. Too often - particularly so for one of his talent - Schumacher has relied on the unfair advantage to win, either created by himself with controversial manoeuvres on the track or in various means by his backers off it. Sadly, the length of the list of these incidents rivals that of his best drives. Schumacher has sometimes been in trouble with the authorities Few would have said Damon Hill deserved to be world drivers' champion in 1994 more than Schumacher, but the circumstances in which the German won his first title clouded the achievement. And there have been few years since then in which Schumacher has not been involved in some row or another. In the first few seasons of his career, as Schumacher protested his innocence in these incidents, many observers were prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. But, as the evidence has stacked up against him, an increasing number have come to accept this as an indelible part of Schumacher's character. FIVE LIVE VIEW A wonderful talent who takes you breath away for both the right and the wrong reasons P Parkinson Five Live: Have your say In moments of extreme pressure - and sometimes not even then - his first reaction is often to protect his position by unsporting means. For a long time, his elevated status in the sport insulated him from the severest public criticism, which tended to come from the media and other outsiders, and was thus more easily shrugged off. But in recent years the indulgence with which he is treated has evaporated, which explains why the gamesmanship he employed to stop qualifying in Monaco this year met with such a violent reaction from his fellow drivers. Spa 1997 was one of Schumacher's greatest victories Tolerance of what many now see as little better than cheating has been at an all-time low this season. Partly this is out of a sense that time was running out on his career, but just as much it is a case of many of his peers finally feeling that enough was enough. Few would concur with Jacques Villeneuve's recent claim that Schumacher's questionable ethics mean that "the day he hangs up his helmet people will just forget him" - his 90 Grand Prix wins and seven world titles, plus all his other achievements, will ensure quite the opposite. But what Villeneuve calls his "lack of class" certainly means Schumacher will not be remembered in quite the way he might have wanted.