Jordan (1991) Schumacher made his Formula One debut with the Irish
Jordan-
Ford team at the , driving car number 32 as a replacement for the imprisoned
Bertrand Gachot. Schumacher, still a contracted Mercedes driver, was signed by
Eddie Jordan after Mercedes paid Jordan $150,000 for his debut. The week before the race, Schumacher impressed Jordan designer
Gary Anderson and team manager Trevor Foster during a test drive at the
Silverstone Circuit. Despite having only spectated the challenging
Spa-Francorchamps Circuit, Schumacher's manager Weber reassured Jordan that Schumacher knew it well. During the race weekend, teammate
Andrea de Cesaris could not show Schumacher the circuit because he was delayed by contract negotiations. Schumacher then rode a
foldable bike around the track to become familiar with it on his own. Schumacher impressed the paddock in his debut,
qualifying seventh in the midfield
Jordan 191 car, which he tested for half a day, at a circuit where he had never raced. This also matched the team's season-best grid position, and Schumacher outqualified de Cesaris.
Motor Sport journalist
Joe Saward reported that, after qualifying, "clumps of German journalists were talking about 'the best talent since
Stefan Bellof. Schumacher retired on the race's first lap with
clutch problems.
Benetton (1991–1995) Following his Belgian Grand Prix debut, despite an
agreement in principle between Jordan and Schumacher's Mercedes management that would see the German race for the Irish team for the remainder of the season, Schumacher was engaged by
Benetton-Ford for the next race. Jordan applied for an
injunction in the British courts to prevent Schumacher driving for Benetton but lost the case as they had not yet signed a final contract.
1991–1993: Maiden points, podiums, and wins Schumacher finished the season with four points out of six races. His best finish was fifth in his second race, the , in which he finished ahead of his teammate and three-time World Champion
Nelson Piquet. He also outqualified Piquet four times out of five in the season run-in, scoring only half a point less than him during their time together.--> in at the . In 1992, he achieved the first of his 91 wins. At the start of the season the Sauber team, planning their Formula One debut with Mercedes backing for the following year, invoked a clause in Schumacher's contract that stated that if Mercedes entered Formula One, Schumacher would drive for them. It was eventually agreed that Schumacher would stay with Benetton;
Peter Sauber stated that "[Schumacher] didn't want to drive for us. Why would I have forced him?" The year was dominated by the
Williams FW14B of
Nigel Mansell and
Riccardo Patrese, featuring powerful
Renault engines,
semi-automatic gearboxes, and
active suspension to control the car's ride height. In the conventional
Benetton B192, Schumacher finished third in the , his first
podium finish. Through what has been described as a tactical masterstroke, That also marked as the last
Formula One car to win a Grand Prix while sporting a H-pattern
manual gearbox. From the
1992 Portuguese Grand Prix to the
1998 Monaco Grand Prix, Schumacher was not beaten by his teammate when both cars finished. The year 1992 was also the first of many times that Schumacher beat his teammate through a full season, and
Martin Brundle was fired as a result. Benetton team boss
Flavio Briatore later regretted this decision, saying that he had underestimated the ability of both his drivers. Schumacher finished third in the Drivers' Championship in 1992 with 53 points, three points behind runner-up Patrese and three in front of the Brazilian
Ayrton Senna. According to
Jo Ramírez, a close friend of Senna, the Brazilian considered Schumacher "the next big threat, way ahead of all the other drivers around at the time". The
Williams FW15C of
Damon Hill and
Alain Prost dominated the season as well. Benetton introduced their own active suspension and
traction control early in the season, last of the frontrunning teams to do so. Schumacher won one race, the where he beat Prost, and had nine podium finishes; he retired in seven of the other 16 races. He finished the season in fourth, with 52 points, beating Patrese as teammate, so much so that Briatore and his team thought that Patrese was washed up and that they had no problem with their car.
1994–1995: Back-to-back World Championships to his first World Championship in 1994. Schumacher won his first
Drivers' Championship in . Driving the
Benetton B194, which has been called the worst car to have won a Formula One World Championship and was difficult to drive, so much so that Schumacher had three different teammates (
JJ Lehto,
Jos Verstappen, and
Johnny Herbert) due to crashes, Schumacher won the first four races and finished the season with eight wins. He won six of the first seven races, including the in which he lapped the entire field, and was leading the , before a gearbox failure left him stuck in fifth gear for most of the race. The 1994 season was marred by the
death of Ayrton Senna, which was witnessed by Schumacher who was directly behind Senna, and that of
Roland Ratzenberger during the ; there were also
allegations of cheating during the 1994 Formula One season involving several teams, most particularly Schumacher's Benetton, having allegedly broken the sport's technical regulations. Following the San Marino Grand Prix, the Benetton,
Ferrari, and
McLaren teams were investigated on suspicion of breaking the
FIA-imposed ban on electronic aids. Benetton and McLaren initially refused to hand over their
source code for investigation. When they did so, the FIA discovered hidden functionality in both teams' software but no evidence that it had been used in a race. Both teams were fined $100,000 for their initial refusal to cooperate. The McLaren software, which was a gearbox program that allowed automatic shifts, was deemed legal. By contrast, the Benetton software was deemed to be a form of launch control that would have allowed Schumacher to make perfect starts, which was explicitly outlawed by the regulations; Benetton and
Willem Toet, a Formula One
aerodynamicist for over thirty years who worked at Benetton until 1994, stated that traction control was legally achieved through
rotational inertia. There was no evidence to suggest the software was used. At the , Schumacher was penalised for overtaking Hill on the
formation lap. He and Benetton then ignored the penalty and the subsequent
black flag, which indicates that the driver must immediately return to the pits, for which he was disqualified and later given a two-race ban. Benetton blamed the incident on a communication error between the stewards and the team. Schumacher was also disqualified after winning the , after his car was found to have illegal wear on its
skid block, a measure used after the accidents at the
Imola Circuit to limit
downforce and hence cornering speed. Benetton protested that the skid block had been damaged when Schumacher spun over a kerb; the FIA rejected their appeal because of the pattern of wear and damage visible on the block. The two-race ban punishment was seen by many observers as petty and insignificant, and that it was a result of Benetton's feud with the FIA, with Schumacher being a victim and the FIA trying to deny him his first World Championship. These incidents helped Hill close the points gap, and Schumacher led by a single point going into the final race at the . On lap 36, Schumacher hit the guardrail on the outside of the track while leading. Hill attempted to pass but as Schumacher's car returned to the track there was a collision on the corner causing them both to retire. As a result, Schumacher won the Drivers' Championship, the first German to do so—
Jochen Rindt (the only posthumous Drivers' Champion) was German but raced under the Austrian flag, and whose domination in was later equalled by Schumacher. The race stewards judged it as a racing accident and took no action against either driver. Although the Drivers' Championship had been decided in a similar manner in 1989 and 1990, and Schumacher was vilified in the British media. At the FIA conference after the race, Schumacher dedicated his title to Senna. In , Schumacher successfully defended his title with Benetton, which now had the same Renault engine as
Williams; according to observers, including Peter Wright, Benetton had the better team while Williams had the superior car. Schumacher accumulated 33 more points than second-placed Hill. With Herbert as teammate, he took Benetton to its first
Constructors' Championship, breaking the dominance of McLaren and Williams, and became the youngest two-time World Champion in Formula One history. The season was marred by several collisions with Hill, in particular an overtaking manoeuvre by Hill took them both out of the on lap 45, and again on lap 23 of the ; it also saw one of his career's best overtakes, with the one over
Jean Alesi giving him the win at the , finishing 16 seconds ahead of Hill,
Ferrari (1996–2006) In , Schumacher joined Ferrari, a team that had last won the Drivers' Championship in 1979 and the Constructors' Championship in , for a salary of $60 million over two years. He left Benetton a year before his contract with them expired; he later cited the team's damaging actions in 1994 as his reason for opting out of his deal. In 1997, Schumacher lured Benetton employees
Rory Byrne (designer) and
Ross Brawn (technical director) to Ferrari. Ferrari had previously come close to the championship in and . The team had suffered a disastrous downturn in the early 1990s, partially as its famous
V12 engine was no longer competitive against the smaller, lighter, and more fuel-efficient
V10s of its competitors. Various drivers, notably Prost, had given the vehicles disparaging labels, such as "truck", "pig", and "accident waiting to happen". Furthermore, the poor performance of the Ferrari pit crews was considered a running joke. At the end of 1995, although Ferrari had improved into a solid competitor, it was still considered inferior to front-running teams like Benetton and Williams. Schumacher declared the
Ferrari F310 good enough to win a championship, although afterwards his teammate
Eddie Irvine labelled the F310 "an awful car", a "piece of junk", and "almost undriveable", while designer
John Barnard admitted that the car "wasn't very good". Irvine also later commented: "The '96 [Ferrari] car was a disaster and was nearly undriveable. Only someone of Michael Schumacher's ability—and maybe Senna—could have driven it." Alesi and Berger were allowed to drive Schumacher's
Benetton B195 with which he won the World Championship in 1995, and they could not believe how Schumacher had won with it, calling it "the ugly ducking" for being so ugly to drive and having many crashes.
1996–1999: World Championship challenges and injury In 1996, Schumacher finished third in the Drivers' Championship and helped Ferrari to second place in the Constructors' Championship ahead of his old team Benetton. During the season, the car had reliability problems; Schumacher did not finish in 7 of the 16 races. At the , Schumacher took
pole position but suffered engine failure on the formation lap. He won three races, more than the team's total tally for the period from 1991 to 1995, despite a poor chassis. He took his first win for Ferrari at the , where he lapped the entire field up to third place in the wet. He also won in front of the
tifosi (Ferrari fans) at the . Schumacher and Villeneuve competed for the title in , despite never sharing a podium and almost never battling directly on the track, in what has been described as the sport's most dramatic and controversial season finale. Villeneuve, driving the superior
Williams FW19, led the championship in the early part of the season. Schumacher's first win of the season came at the wet , in which he took a six-second lead after one lap. Schumacher had taken the championship lead, winning five races, and entered the season's finale (the at the
Jerez Circuit) with a one-point advantage. In qualifying, Schumacher set the same fastest lap as Villeneuve and Frentzen. He started in second position as Villeneuve set his fastest lap first but was able to jump him at the start. Towards the end of the race, Schumacher's Ferrari developed a coolant leak and loss of performance indicating he might not finish the race. As Villeneuve approached to pass his rival on lap 48, Schumacher turned in on him but retired from the race. Villeneuve went on and scored four points to take the championship. Despite public outcry, the race stewards did not initially award any penalty, as they had deemed it a racing incident; two weeks after the race, in an unprecedented move, Initially feeling wronged, Schumacher accepted the decision and admitted having made a mistake, In later years, Villeneuve himself admitted that he "would never have made that corner without [Schumacher's] push", and Schumacher stated in 2009 that if he could have his career over again, he would "do some things differently", citing Jerez 1997 as something that he would have changed in his career. in 1998 at the . For the second consecutive year, Schumacher lost out the World Championship at the last race. In , Finnish driver Mika Häkkinen became Schumacher's main title rival. Driving the superior
McLaren MP4/13, Häkkinen won the first two races of the season, gaining a 16-point advantage over Schumacher, who then won the . With the Ferrari improving significantly in the second half of the season, Schumacher took six victories and had five other podium finishes. One of his victories was at the , a track where overtaking is difficult and that favoured McLaren; Brawn had told him: "Michael, you have 19 laps to pull out 25 seconds. We need 19 qualifying laps from you." Häkkinen, who started on pole, achieved only a point due to reliability issues. Ferrari took a
1–2 finish at the , the first Ferrari 1–2 finish since 1990, and at the , There were two controversies during the 1998 season. At the , Schumacher was leading on the last lap when he turned into the pit lane, crossed the start-finish line, and stopped to serve his
ten-second stop-go penalty, which was a result of overtaking the lapped car of
Alexander Wurz during a
safety car period. There was some doubt whether this counted as serving the penalty; because he had crossed the finish line when he came into the pit lane, The FIA rescinded the penalty due to taking 31 minutes, rather than within the 25 minutes limit, and rejected McLaren's protest. From a possible three-point lead, Schumacher was still seven points behind Häkkinen. Heading into the final race, the , Häkkinen held a four-point advantage over Schumacher, who started on pole but stalled and caused the start to be aborted, which meant he had to start from the back of the field. He made a comeback up to third but retired after hitting debris from an accident. Häkkinen won the Drivers' Championship by winning the final two races despite Schumacher being the polesitter both times, continuing Ferrari's longest World Championship drought. In , Schumacher's efforts helped Ferrari win the Constructors' Championship, the team's first title since 1983. He lost his chance to win the Drivers' Championship at the at the high-speed Stowe Corner; his car's rear brake failed, sending him off the track into the barriers and resulting in a broken leg. During his 98-day absence, he was replaced by Finnish driver
Mika Salo. About his return, Schumacher's teammate Irvine recalled: "It was amazing. I remember me and Mika Salo were testing at Mugello, which is one of the hardest circuits in the world—and he [Schumacher] hadn't driven for eight months. He got in the car and within a lap he was a tenth or two tenths slower than I was. How do you do that? And then of course a couple of laps later he's half a second quicker and—it's just impossible. It's really really annoying, but it was an honour to be able to see his
telemetry and see the things he could do with a car." with Irvine leading the championship by one point. About Schumacher's role, Irvine stated: "He is not only the best driver in the world, he is also the best number two in the world." In the last race of the season, the , Häkkinen won his second consecutive title after he beat him off the line. Schumacher later said that Häkkinen was "the best opponent I've had" and the one he respected the most.
2000–2004: Five consecutive World Championships In , Schumacher won his third Drivers' Championship, his first with Ferrari, after a year-long battle with Häkkinen. Schumacher won the first three races of the season and five of the first eight. Midway through the year, Schumacher's chances suffered with three consecutive non-finishes, allowing Häkkinen to close the gap in the standings. At the qualifying session, which was largely decided in the opening 10 minutes of semi-dry weather, Schumacher was able to improve his time in the final seconds and qualified second. In the race, he retired after crashing out at the start, as his new teammate
Rubens Barrichello took his maiden win from 18th. The championship fight came down to the penultimate race of the season, the . Starting from pole position, Schumacher lost the lead to Häkkinen at the start. he later described it as the fight of his life. Although Schumacher won more than twice as many Grands Prix as Häkkinen,
BBC Sport journalist Andrew Benson stated that "the challenge from Mika Hakkinen and McLaren-Mercedes was far stronger than the raw statistics suggest" and that the
Adrian Newey-designed McLaren was "the fastest car in F1 for the third straight year". Benson also hailed Schumacher as "unquestionably the greatest driver of his era". In , Schumacher took his fourth Drivers' title. Four other drivers won races but none sustained a season-long challenge for the championship. Schumacher scored a record-tying nine wins and clinched the World Championship with four races yet to run. He finished the championship with 123 points, 58 ahead of runner-up Coulthard. Season highlights included the , where he won after Häkkinen retired on the last lap due to his car's clutch failing leading Schumacher to say he was sorry for him and that they had been "bloody lucky"; and the , in which Schumacher scored his 52nd career win, breaking Prost's record for most career wins that had stood since 1993. at the . It was at this race that he clinched the 2002 Drivers' Championship, setting the record for the fewest races in locking up the title. In , Schumacher retained his Drivers' Championship. In winning the Drivers' Championship, he equalled the record set by
Juan Manuel Fangio of five World Championships. Ferrari won 15 out of 17 races, and Schumacher won the title with six races remaining in the season, which is still the earliest point in the season for a driver to be crowned World Champion. He finished with 144 points, a record-breaking 67 points ahead of the runner-up, his teammate Barrichello. This pair finished nine of the 17 races in the first two places. During the 2002 season, there was some controversy at the , where Barrichello was leading but in the final metres of the race, under
team orders, slowed down to allow Schumacher to win the race. Although the switching of positions did not break any actual sporting or technical regulation, as Ferrari did the same at the the previous year where Schumacher finished second and Barrichello third, it angered fans and it was claimed that the team's actions showed a lack of sportsmanship and respect to the spectators. Many argued that Schumacher did not need to be given wins in only the sixth race of the season, which he would have won anyway, a view also shared by
Jean Todt and Brawn in retrospect, particularly given that he had already won four of the previous five Grands Prix, and that Barrichello had dominated the race weekend up to that point. At the podium ceremony, Schumacher pushed Barrichello onto the top step, Schumacher vowed to pay back Barrichello, and later that same year returned the favour in several races to help him finish second in the standings. At the , Schumacher returned the favour, by giving Barrichello the win by 0.011 seconds, the second-closest margin on the finishing line in Formula One history in a failed
dead heat finish. In an unplanned finish, Schumacher's explanation varied between it being him "returning the favour" for Austria, or trying to engineer a
formation finish—a feat derided as near-impossible in a sport where timings are taken to within a thousandth of a second. After the end of the season, the FIA banned "team orders which interfere with the race result"; the ban was lifted for the 2011 season because the ruling was difficult to enforce. in 2004, where he won the . 2004 would be the last of his seven Drivers' Championships (a record shared with
Lewis Hamilton since 2020), five of which were won consecutively from 2000 to 2004. Schumacher broke Fangio's 46-year record of five Drivers' Championships by winning the drivers' title for the sixth time in , after a closely contested battle with his main rivals, which was also a result of lobbying regarding the Michelin tyres. The biggest competition came from the McLaren-Mercedes and Williams-
BMW teams. In the first race, Schumacher was run off track, and he was involved in collisions in the following two. He fell 16 points behind McLaren's
Kimi Räikkönen. Despite the death of his mother Elisabeth just hours before the race, Schumacher won the despite losing the first position going into turn one. Schumacher, running on
Bridgestone tyres, won the next two races. After Montoya was penalised in the , only Schumacher and Räikkönen remained in contention for the title. At the final round, the , Schumacher needed only one point whilst Räikkönen needed to win. By finishing the race in eighth place, Schumacher took one point and assured his sixth Drivers' title, ending the season two points ahead of Räikkönen. In , Schumacher won a record 12 of the first 13 races of the season, including the inaugural , with the as his last win of the season, only failing to finish in Monaco after an accident with Montoya during a safety car period. In August 2004, Schumacher's win at the contributed to Ferrari's sixth consecutive Constructors' Championship, and he later clinched a seventh Drivers' Championship at the . Earlier in July at the , Schumacher beat polesitter
Fernando Alonso with a four-stop strategy. He finished the season with a record 148 points, 34 points ahead of the runner-up Barrichello, and set a new record of 13 race wins out of a possible 18, surpassing his previous best of 11 wins from the 2002 season. Between 2000 and 2004, Schumacher achieved five Drivers' Championships, 48 wins, and almost all Formula One records. With his fifth Drivers' Championship in a row, he also broke Fangio's record of consecutive titles that had stood for nearly fifty years.
2005–2006: Regulation changes and first retirement in 2005 during the . Due to rule changes, he achieved only one win that year. Rule changes for the season required tyres to last an entire race, tipping the overall advantage to teams using Michelins over teams like Ferrari that relied on Bridgestone tyres. The rule changes were partly in an effort to dent Ferrari's dominance and make the series more interesting. Less than halfway through the season, Schumacher stated: "I don't think I can count myself in this battle any more. It was like trying to fight with a blunted weapon. If your weapons are weak you don't have a chance." Schumacher's sole win in 2005 came at the in a 1–2 finish with Barrichello. Before that race, the Michelin tyres were found to have significant safety issues. When no compromise between the teams and the FIA could be reached, all but the three teams using Bridgestone tyres dropped out of the race after the formation lap, leaving only six drivers on the grid. Schumacher retired in 6 of the 19 races, and finished the season in third with 62 points, fewer than half the points of World Champion Alonso. for fourth with three laps to go of the , in what was the last race of a competitive 2006 season and his final race for three years, having dropped to 19th early on. became the last season of Schumacher's Ferrari career. After three races, Schumacher had just 11 points and was already 17 points behind Alonso. He won the following two races; his pole position at was his 66th, breaking Senna's 12-year-old record, which was described as perhaps the greatest record that stood in the sport, Schumacher was stripped of pole position at the and started the race at the back of the grid, as he stopped his car and blocked part of the circuit while Alonso was on his qualifying lap; he still managed to work his way up to fifth place on the notoriously cramped
Monaco Circuit. Before the , the fourteenth race of the season, the FIA banned Renault's mass damper, with the superior
Renault R26 suddenly no longer as competitive. By the , the ninth race of the season, Schumacher was 25 points behind Alonso; he then won the following three races, including at Hockenheim, to reduce his disadvantage to 11, and to 10 by Turkey. Since Canada, Ferrari won six out of seven races, including at the
Monza Circuit, with Schumacher winning in five of them. After further victories at the , where he announced his retirement at the end of the season, and at the , in what would be his 91st and final career win, After his win in Italy, Ferrari issued a press release stating that Schumacher would retire from racing at the end of the 2006 season but would continue working for the team. The
tifosi and the Italian press, who did not always take to Schumacher's relatively cold public persona, displayed an affectionate response after he announced his retirement. had worked together in sports cars before entering Formula One in 1992. After qualifying second, Schumacher led the in what could have seen him heading into the season finale with two points ahead of Alonso. With only 16 laps to go, his car suffered an engine failure for the first time since the in 2000, ending a 58-race sequence without a mechanical retirement, handing Alonso the victory. He also conceded the title; to win the Drivers' Championship, Schumacher would have had to win the final race and Alonso had to fail to score any point, and he did not wish to win the title like that. A fuel pressure problem prevented Schumacher from completing a single lap during the third qualifying session, forcing him to start the race in tenth position. Early in the race, Schumacher moved up to sixth place but suffered a puncture caused by the front wing of
Giancarlo Fisichella's Renault. Schumacher fell to 19th place, 70 seconds behind teammate and race leader
Felipe Massa. Schumacher recovered and overtook both Fisichella and Räikkönen, his successor at Ferrari following his retirement, and was variously classified in the press as "heroic", an "utterly breath-taking drive", and a "performance that ... sums up his career". During the following weeks, Schumacher, Brawn, Byrne, and Todt were credited for turning the struggling Ferrari team into the most successful team in Formula One history, with Schumacher winning 72 Grands Prix and five consecutive Drivers' titles there. Schumacher held at least 31 records, including for most championship titles (7), consecutive titles (5), race victories (91), consecutive wins (7, 2004), wins with one team (72, Ferrari), wins at same Grand Prix (8, France), wins at different Grands Prix (20), time between first and last wins (14 years, 1 month, and 2 days), second places (43), podiums (154), consecutive podium finishes (19, 2001–2002), points finishes (190), laps leading (4.741, or 22,155 km), pole positions (68), front row starts (115), fastest laps (76), doubles (pole and win, 40),
hat-tricks (pole, fastest lap, and win, 22), championship points (1,369), consecutive race finishes (24, 2001–2003), consecutive points finishes (24), points in a season for the runner-up (121 out of 180, 2006), wins in a season for the runner-up (7, 2006), races for same car and engine builder (180, Ferrari), wins at
Indianapolis (5), wins at Monza (5), wins in a season (13, 2004), fastest laps in a season (10, 2004), points scored in a season (148, 2004), podium finishes in a season (17, 2002), championship won with most races left (6, 2002), and consecutive years with a win (15).
2007–2009: New roles at Ferrari, motorcycle racing, and injury at
Fiorano. It is the last Ferrari to have won the Driver's Championship since Schumacher. During the season, Schumacher acted as Ferrari's adviser and Jean Todt's super assistant. Schumacher also helped Ferrari with their development programme at the
Jerez Circuit. He focused on testing electronics and tyres for the season. During 2008, Schumacher also competed in
motorcycle racing in the
IDM Superbike series. At a Superbike cup race at the
Pannónia-Ring, Schumacher finished third out of twenty-seven—behind professional motorcycle racers
Martin Bauer and
Andreas Meklau—riding a
Honda CBR1000RR. At the on 25 July 2009, Ferrari's Felipe Massa was seriously injured after being struck by a suspension spring during qualifying. Ferrari announced that they planned to draft in Schumacher for the and subsequent Grands Prix until Massa was able to race again. Schumacher tested a modified
Ferrari F2007 to prepare himself as he had been unable to test the
Ferrari F60 due to testing restrictions. Ferrari appealed for special permission for Schumacher to test in a season spec car; Williams,
Red Bull, and
Toro Rosso were against this test. In the end, Schumacher was forced to call off his return due to the severity of the neck injury he had received in a
motorcycle accident earlier in the year. Instead, Massa's place was first filled by
Luca Badoer and later on by Fisichella. Schumacher described this aborted return to Formula One as his "toughest moment".
Mercedes (2010–2012) In December 2009, Schumacher announced his return to Formula One for the season alongside fellow German driver and 24-year-old
Nico Rosberg in the new Mercedes GP team. The season had ended with
Brawn GP (taking over from
Honda) winning both titles, after winning six of the first seven races. For the 2010 season, Mercedes returned to the sport as a constructor for the first time since 1955, and Schumacher rejoined team principal Ross Brawn, who was behind all of his seven World Championships. Schumacher stated that his preparations to replace the injured Massa had initiated a renewed interest in Formula One, which, combined with the opportunity to fulfil a long-held ambition to drive for Mercedes and to be working again with Brawn, led Schumacher to accept the offer once he was passed fit. Speaking to the
BBC, Schumacher said: "I want to have fun out there and I feel as fresh as ever. I've recharged myself after a three-year break. The challenge is what I look for—I want to know it." and Fangio, Formula One's oldest champion who was 46 when he won his fifth title. 1,239 days after his previous Formula One race. He finished behind teammate Rosberg in each of the first four qualifying sessions and races; former driver
Stirling Moss suggested that Schumacher might be "past it". Several other former Formula One drivers thought otherwise, including Hill, who warned "you should never write Schumacher off". GrandPrix.com identified the inherent
understeer of the Mercedes car, exacerbated by the narrower front tyres introduced for the 2010 season, as contributing to Schumacher's difficulties.
Jenson Button would later claim that Mercedes's car was designed for him, as he would initially drive for the team, and that their differing driving styles may have contributed to Schumacher's difficulties. Mercedes upgraded their car for the where Schumacher finished fourth. At the , Schumacher finished sixth after passing Ferrari's Fernando Alonso on the final corner before the finish line when the safety car returned to the pits. Mercedes held that "the combination of the race control messages 'Safety Car in this lap' and 'Track Clear' and the green flags and lights shown by the marshals after safety car line one indicated that the race was not finishing under the safety car and all drivers were free to race." An FIA investigation found Schumacher guilty of breaching safety car regulations and awarded him a 20-second penalty, dropping him to 12th. In doing so, the FIA sought to clarify the regulations post-race, as the new and old rules appeared to be in conflict. At the in Valencia, Schumacher finished 15th, the lowest recorded finish in his career. At the , Barrichello attempted to pass Schumacher down the inside on the main straight. Schumacher closed the inside line to force Barrichello onto the outside; Barrichello persisted on the inside at despite the close proximity of a concrete wall and Schumacher leaving him only inches to spare. Schumacher, who finished 12th, was found guilty of dangerous driving and was demoted ten places on the grid for the following race, the , where he finished seventh despite starting 21st after his grid penalty. At the , Schumacher was involved in a major accident on the first lap, after
Vitantonio Liuzzi's car collided with Schumacher's, barely missing his head. Schumacher finished the season in ninth place with 72 points. For the first time since 1991, Schumacher finished a year without a win, pole position, podium, or fastest lap. Schumacher's first points were scored at the where he finished ninth. Schumacher later came sixth at the , and he took fourth place at the , after running as high as second in a wet race; his Canadian race was seen at the time as his most convincing performance since he came out of retirement. Despite starting last at the , twenty years after his debut, Schumacher finished fifth. The saw Schumacher lead three laps during the race, marking the first time he had led a race since 2006. In doing so, he became the oldest driver to lead a race since
Jack Brabham in 1970. Schumacher finished the season in eighth place in the Drivers' Championship, with 76 points. Schumacher was again partnered by Rosberg at Mercedes for the season. After qualifying fourth in what was his best qualifying since his return, he retired from the season's inaugural , and scored a point in the second round at the with intermittent rain, after qualifying third. At the , Schumacher started on the front row but retired due to a loose wheel after a mechanic's error during a pit stop. After causing a collision with
Bruno Senna at the , Schumacher received a five-place grid penalty for the . Twenty-one years into his career, He later retired from seventh place in the race. At the , Schumacher finished third, his only podium finish since his return to Formula One. At 43 years and 173 days, he became the oldest driver to achieve a podium since 1970, when Brabham finished second at the . At the , Schumacher set the fastest lap for the 77th time in his career. At the , Schumacher became the second driver in history (after Barrichello) to race in 300 Grands Prix; he took seventh place after starting 13th. Schumacher's indecision over his future plans led to him being replaced by
Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes for the season. In October 2012, days before the , Schumacher announced he would retire for a second time, stating: "There were times in the past few months in which I didn't want to deal with Formula One or prepare for the next Grand Prix." Schumacher finished seventh at the , his 308th and final entry and 306th race start, to end his season. This was also the starting position for his debut Formula One race. During the race, he symbolically pulled over for fellow German
Sebastian Vettel en route to his then third Drivers' Championship. Schumacher finished 13th in the 2012 Drivers' Championship. During his comeback, he led three laps but never won a race, finishing no higher than eighth in the overall Formula One standings. He closed his career with 91 wins, 155 podiums, and 68 pole positions, which at the time were all records. Despite a difficult three years, which included adaptation to significant different regulations and new
Pirelli tyres, as well as rust, and being bested by his teammate, he had improved in the last two years where he arguably outraced Rosberg but bad luck and mechanical failures did not reflect it at the standings. From 2014 to , Mercedes went on to win a record-breaking (of Schumacher's Ferrari from 1999 to 2004) eight Constructors' Championships under Hamilton, Rosberg, and
Valtteri Bottas. Brawn said that "Michael's contribution to our development and the future of our team has been significant", and observed: "In my opinion, he is the greatest Formula One driver, and the records which he holds in our sport speak volumes for his success and commitment." Brawn also stated that had Schumacher not retired in 2012 and not suffered a ski injury in 2013, he would have had a chance at winning his eighth World Championship in . In 2023, Williams team principal
James Vowles, who was Mercedes chief strategist during Schumacher's time at the team between 2010 and 2012 and was instrumental in the team's success in the mid-to-late 2010s, said that Schumacher brought Mercedes together. Vowles added: "[Schumacher] also knew his performance was perhaps not quite at the same level, but he made up for it in terms of the amount of work and dedication he put in. From that, Nico learned a lot and conversely, Lewis learned a lot from Nico." ==Driver profile and legacy==