
Schumacher in numbers
329 official points · best championship finish: 4th in 2001
0Drivers’ titles
none
0Constructors’ titles
none
3.3% of races
3.3% of races
15% of races
0Drivers’ titles
none
0Constructors’ titles
none
9.1% of races with Jordan
0Drivers’ titles
none
0Constructors’ titles
none
6.4% of races with Williams
5.3% of races with Williams
22.3% of races with Williams
0Drivers’ titles
none
0Constructors’ titles
none
1.9% of races with Toyota
5.7% of races with Toyota
Ralf Schumacher won six Grands Prix and took six poles across eleven seasons, numbers that in any other context would have built an unarguably respected career. The context was his older brother, who over those same years was winning five straight titles, and against that comparison no argument holds.
His best spell was the Williams years with BMW power, between 2000 and 2004. In 2001 he won three races and finished fourth in the championship, in a car that was very quick in a straight line and short on reliability, and he led home the first brothers' one-two in history in Canada. Passes between the two became recurring television material.
He moved to Toyota in 2005 looking to be the reference point of a team of his own, and found the same problem as Jarno Trulli, his team-mate: the best funded project on the grid never turned that money into wins. He retired in 2007 without winning again, with the permanent sense of a career always judged by comparison.
Schumacher against everyone, in the same car
We put the 11 names that come up most often head to head with identical machinery, 150 seasons of 18 races per duel. Schumacher comes out 2 of 11, between Verstappen and Senna.
The full league, duel by duel, with who beats whom and by how much.
Rating by season
- First season
- 77 1997
- Peak
- 80 2001
- 2007
- 75 Toyota
11 seasons in the database, from 1997 to 2007. Our own rating, from 50 to 99.
Teams
Tags
Best year
2001
What would Ralf Schumacher have achieved with a different car or in a different era?
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His team-mates
6 team-mates across 11 seasons. When both finished the race, Schumacher was ahead in 39 of 77; on the grid he started ahead in 85 of 180.
| Year | Team-mate | In the race | On the grid |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Giancarlo FisichellaJordan · 17 races | 3-2 | 7-10 |
| 1998 | Damon HillJordan · 16 races | 2-3 | 10-6 |
| 1999 | Alessandro ZanardiWilliams · 16 races | 3-0 | 10-6 |
| 2000 | Jenson ButtonWilliams · 17 races | 5-1 | 11-6 |
| 2001 | Juan Pablo MontoyaWilliams · 17 races | 1-3 | 11-6 |
| 2002 | Juan Pablo MontoyaWilliams · 17 races | 4-6 | 8-9 |
| 2003 | Juan Pablo MontoyaWilliams · 15 races | 5-5 | 9-6 |
| 2004 | Juan Pablo MontoyaWilliams · 12 races | 3-2 | 3-9 |
| 2005 | Jarno TrulliToyota · 18 races | 6-8 | 4-14 |
| 2006 | Jarno TrulliToyota · 18 races | 3-3 | 9-9 |
| 2007 | Jarno TrulliToyota · 17 races | 4-5 | 3-14 |
The first number is always Schumacher's. A team-mate is whoever started the same race for the same team. "In the race" only counts races both finished, because a retirement says nothing about who was quicker. "On the grid" is the starting position, with penalties already applied.
Compare Schumacher with another driver
Titles, wins, poles and podiums side by side, against any of the 789 drivers in history.
Keep reading
Where Ralf Schumacher comes up in what we have measured, with our own numbers.
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