#rolf schumacher

[gonnaupdatethisrandomly]

[vintagef1]

ralf, rolf, and michael schumacher at the karting track where they and sebastian vettel began their careers, kerpen, germany - july 19, 1993 📷 michael jung / getty

[grandprixfashions]

The Schumacher family, circa 1990: Ralf, dad Rolf, and Michael.

Or: Prince William with a hangover, Eddie Jordan after a McDonalds binge, and Jeremy Clarkson after an argument with some hair straighteners.

[crossdrilled]

Why it's not exactly good to be a German F1 driver.

Germany, home to some of the most successful race cars, the most daunting race tracks and the greatest highway ever. So in a country that essentially created the motor car why is it that there has only been 2 German F1 champions? The great Michael Schumacher an baby Schumi, Sebastian Vettel. Essentially, after doing a bit of research, there have been a lot of close calls in the past, but the Germans have always had a bit of a bad mojo on them. So, when did this start?

1961: Wolfgang von Trips

von Trips was primarily known for being really fast or being involved in epic crashes. In 1961, he was on his way to becoming Germany's first F1 world champion. With 6 races completed [2 wins, 2 2nd places, a 4th place and a DNF] a 3rd place in the Italian GP would guarantee him as world champion even without needing to score points at the final race in America. Unfortunately his race was cut short, after a collision with Jim Clark, he was thrown for the car and died on the spot. 15 other spectators also lost their lives in the aftermath of the crash. His teammate Phil Hill won the race and ultimately won the Driver's Championship. Hill refused to race at his home Grand Prix in the US partly because he didn't need to but mainly because he was in such shock of von Trip's death.

1970: Jochen Rindt

Ok let's get this straight, Rindt was born in Germany but moved to Austria to live with his grandparents after his parents were killed. As a result, although he was never deemed an Austrian national, his licence was based in Austria, and according to F1 as far as they were concerned he was Austrian. In 1969 he moved to Lotus to replace the recently deceased Jim Clark, where he started his go hard or DNF technique. In 1970 the car got reliable and Rindt did more winning than crashing, giving him a comfortable lead in the championship. In practice for the 1970 Italian GP however, Rindt's car suffered a failure on one of the brake shafts causing an inevitable accident. He died on the spot. Despite his death taking place with 4 races left in the season, his 5 dominant lead in the points race ensured he became F1's first and only posthumous driver's champion.

1975: Jochen Mass

Jochen's career was covered with DNSs, DNFs and mediocre finishes, his one win came at the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix which most of the drivers didn't finish anyways. One of the DNFs included Rolf Stommelen [another German] who's car crashed and killed 4 spectators after slipping in oil. Jochen's name would not be mentioned again until 1982 when he was involved in the incident that killed Gilles Villeneuve. Mass finally retired from F1 that year after his car flew into the spectator stands upside down and on fire [luckily no deaths that time]

1985: Stefan Bellof

Stefan Bellof is said by some to have been as great as Senna had he lived out his life. In 1984 during the Monaco GP, now known as Senna's magic moment, few know that right behind Senna was Bellof [well Bellof's team was disqualified after they discovered they were cheating hence as to why his 3rd spot is not recorded]. But despite this tarnishing, he showed promise as a rookie and outside of F1 he was a master in sportscars, primarily for his mind blowing Nurburgring record [qualifying: 6:11.13 & race: 6:25.91 both of which still stand] However, he never got a chance to transfer his sportscar skills to F1, during the 1000km of Spa he was killed in the very car that made him famous, a Porsche 956.

2005: Ralf Schumacher

Not exactly as successful as his older brother, but without a doubt Rolf was never a "bad" driver. He managed to collect a hand full of wins and podiums in his career, but still couldn't match his brother's record list. But unlike his brother, Rolf had some German luck. At the 2004 United States Grand Prix, his car experienced a severe tyre failure on corner 13 which flung his car into the wall so hard he experienced severe spinal damage and had to be sidelined for most of the season. In 2005 he crashed in similar fashion at the same race but instead during practice. Although not as bad as the previous year's crash, it lead into an investigation into Michellin's tyres to see if they were indeed safe for the race. In the end all cars using Michellin tyres pulled out of the race leaving only 6 cars to start. The rest of the drivers were upset, the crowd was even more upset and as a result America and F1 separated.

2008 Adrian Sutil

Currently racing for Force India [still no seat promised for 2012], a team that has risen from back marker to a regular contender for points placing positions. It is still too early to tell of how great Adrian Sutil is but his greatest drive has had to be the 2008 Monaco GP where he reached as far as fourth. In the closing stages of the races, a rear end shunt by Kimi Raikkonnen ended his race. In the 2009 Monaco GP, Sutil was up to 2nd when Raikkonnen crashed into his car again this time as he was exiting the pics, although he could still race he ended up 15th after repairs to the car.

[gonnaupdatethisrandomly]

Michael's dad Rolf attended one of the races to watch his son.

[gonnaupdatethisrandomly]