{"id":482518,"date":"2025-10-08T08:48:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T08:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/482518\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T08:48:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T08:48:21","slug":"how-schumacher-put-ferrari-back-on-top-in-f1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/482518\/","title":{"rendered":"How Schumacher put Ferrari back on top in F1"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 8 October 2000, Michael Schumacher<\/a> won Ferrari<\/a>\u2019s first Formula 1 drivers\u2019 title in over two decades.<\/p>\n

The tifosi had been biding their time since Jody Scheckter<\/a>\u2019s successful 1979 campaign, with Schumacher coming close to the title for Ferrari in 1997 and 1998 against Jacques Villeneuve<\/a> and Mika Hakkinen<\/a>, while team-mate Eddie Irvine<\/a> led the fight against Hakkinen until the last race in 1999 after the German broke his leg.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

Aged 31, Schumacher got a new team-mate for 2000, Rubens Barrichello<\/a>. \u201cI am number two driver, but it\u2019s more of a 1B really,\u201d the 28-year-old Brazilian smiled after being announced as Ferrari\u2019s new driver.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am definitely number two. I would be snobbish of me to say I want to be number one. I have come to the team much later than Michael. The space is his.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the chance to measure myself against Michael, who is one of the best, if not the best driver in the world \u2013 the chance to prove to myself how good I am. That’s the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it happened, Schumacher quickly enforced his number-one status, winning the first three races of the season, though he made the most of the McLarens\u2019 mechanical drama in Melbourne and Sao Paulo.<\/p>\n

The Ferrari driver never lost the lead, despite three consecutive retirements in the summer \u2013 one engine failure followed by two first-lap collisions \u2013 which tightened the title race.<\/p>\n

Coming into the penultimate round of the season in Japan, Schumacher\u2019s advantage over\u00a0McLaren<\/a>\u2019s Hakkinen was eight points, meaning he needed to score two more than the Finn to be crowned in Suzuka.<\/p>\n

\"Michael <\/p>\n

Michael Schumacher, Ferrari F1-2000<\/p>\n

Photo by: Motorsport Images<\/p>\n

A breathtaking qualifying saw the two title contenders \u2013 both double world champions at the time \u2013 trading fast laps, with Hakkinen setting a 1m35.834s, which Schumacher bested by less than one-hundredth of a second: 1m35.825s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last chicane, I obviously wasn\u2019t able to accelerate out of the corner as fast as I wanted to, so obviously I\u2019m very disappointed to be in second position,\u201d the Finn said, with his final attempt timed at 1m36.018s.<\/p>\n

At the start, Schumacher aggressively drove across the track to close the door on Hakkinen, but the McLaren driver\u2019s lightning getaway still landed him the lead.<\/p>\n

The Ferrari driver shadowed his rival over the first two-thirds of the race, with the gap never exceeding three seconds, until the second round of pitstops. Schumacher then stopped three laps later than Hakkinen and emerged in the lead thanks to the overcut, which was much more powerful when refuelling was allowed due to the contrast in fuel loads.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll my life, I will never forget that radio signal from [technical director] Ross [Brawn],\u201d Schumacher recalled shortly before suffering serious head injuries in a skiing accident in 2013. \u201cI was driving down the pitlane after my second stop, and he said over the radio: ‘It’s looking good, it’s looking good.’<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very tense, and fully expecting him to say ‘It was looking good’, but suddenly he said: ‘It’s looking bloody good!’<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn’t expect that it would work out after the second pitstop. My two last laps before the pitstop were not very good. I had been caught in traffic, and had had to overtake a Benetton that had spun off the track. And then came Ross’s radio message \u2013 unbelievable.<\/p>\n

\"Jean <\/p>\n

Jean Todt, Team Principal, Ferrari, and Michael Schumacher, 1st position, on the podium<\/p>\n

Photo by: Motorsport Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI realised immediately that I had emerged from the pitlane in the lead, that if I made no mistakes and there were no problems with the car, then it was in our grasp, because overtaking is almost impossible at Suzuka.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schumacher took the chequered flag with a 1.8s margin on Hakkinen, ending Ferrari\u2019s wait for a drivers\u2019 world title.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe moment when I crossed the line \u2013 crazy!\u201d Schumacher added. \u201cUp to then I hadn’t dared feel any joy, because I wanted to be absolutely sure and get that finishing line behind me.<\/p>\n

\u201cLater I was repeatedly asked what my predominant feelings were at that moment, and on no single occasion was I able to find the right words. I didn’t know what to do with this happiness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suddenly felt trapped in the car, trapped in my Ferrari, as if I was about to burst. I banged so hard on the steering wheel they thought it was broken, and, as a precaution, it had to be taken out of service.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking back, I have to say that this race was something very special for me. Not only because it brought me the title, but also because it was such a high-class race. It really was racing at its top level.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor over 40 laps Mika and I did almost identical times, like a perpetual qualifying lap. It was certainly one of the best races I have ever driven, if not the best. Mika was fantastic and pushed me to the very limits.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mika <\/p>\n

Mika Hakkinen, Mclaren MP4-15, Michael Schumacher, Ferrari F1 2000, champion<\/p>\n

Photo by: Sutton Images<\/p>\n

Schumacher duly celebrated his third world championship in the next few days. \u201cI have never suffered so badly after a party,\u201d he confessed. \u201cFrom Japan we went on holiday to Thailand and it took me two days to get over the after-effects.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ferrari driver went on to achieve a five-year title-winning streak, which remains unequalled to this day.<\/p>\n

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– The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On 8 October 2000, Michael Schumacher won Ferrari\u2019s first Formula 1 drivers\u2019 title in over two decades. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,997,707,4200,130090,1710,5909,150051,160033,130103,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-482518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-ferrari","10":"tag-formula-1","11":"tag-formula1","12":"tag-marina-bay-street-circuit","13":"tag-mclaren","14":"tag-michael-schumacher","15":"tag-mika-hakkinen","16":"tag-on-this-day-how-schumacher-put-ferrari-back-on-top-in-f1","17":"tag-singapore-gp","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115337685497118083","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}