Michael Schumacher – who is 41 today – has signed a three-year contract with Mercedes GP. What could he achieve between now and 2012?
Schumacher wins the Brazilian GP for Benetton-Renault to kick off his 1995 championship run. What will he achieve in 2010? (photos DPPI/Renault)
Age records
The oldest race winner in recent F1 history is Nigel Mansell, who won the 1994 Australian GP (the race which gave Schumacher his first world championship title) for Williams at the age of 41 years 98 days. If Schumacher can win the Chinese GP in April 2010, or any subsequent race, he will break that record.
At the end of the 2012 season Schumacher will be 43 years and about 310 days old. If he wins a race during that season he will be by far the oldest winner in the modern era of F1. But he's unlikely to beat the record for the oldest race winner in the history of the championship – set by 53-year-old Luigi Fagioli when he won the French GP in 1951. Schumacher would have to win a Grand Prix in 2022 to beat that record...
Juan Manuel Fangio was the oldest World Drivers Champion at the age of 46 in 1957, another record Schumacher is unlikely to break. But if Schumacher wins the title in 2012 he will be the oldest champion in recent years, beating Alain Prost (38 in 1993) and Nigel Mansell (39 in 1992).
GP starts and wins
Assuming Schumacher starts every race over the next three seasons he will end 2012 with about 307 GP starts to his name – which will only be a record if Rubens Barrichello decides to hang up his helmet at the end of 2010. Schumacher will, however, overtake Riccardo Patrese's career total of 257 starts.
Before the 2010 season Schumacher had won 91 Grands Prix, 36.4% of the F1 races he entered. He won seven races in 2006, his last season prior to retirement.
If Schumacher can win at the same overall rate in the next three seasons he will have won about 112 GPs by the end of 2012. Even if his record over the next three seasons can only match his first three seasons at Ferrari, the last time he moved to a new team, he will win 14 more GPs for a total of 105.
World Drivers Championships
Schumacher won the title a record seven times between 1991 and 2006, and will still be a tough competitor in 2010-2012.
Neither his first three years with Benetton nor his first three with Ferrari netted a world title (though he did get close on several occasions). But the next three seasons are likely to be very competitive, with lots of well-matched driver/car combinations and no one driver having a significant performance advantage. If Schumacher can win four or five races in each season he is as well placed as any driver to win one or more titles.
Other records
Schumacher currently holds the records for the most pole positions, most front-row starts, most fastest laps, most podium finishes, most points and longest winning career in F1 – all of which he is likely to improve upon between now and the end of 2012.