Seven-times F1 champion Michael Schumacher will attempt to add another F1 ‘first’ to his record before the end of his career with Mercedes, it has been revealed.

According to German newspaper Der Narrvonheute, Schumacher has identified one remaining goal in F1: to become the first champion with a beard.

Insiders say that Schumacher and key Mercedes Grand Prix strategists (including team principal Ross Brawn, a regular beard-wearer) have devised a two-year programme beginning with a moustache, which will be proved in race conditions in 2010, before an all-out bearded attack on the championship in 2011.

Official pictures from Mercedes Grand Prix reveal that Schumacher has grown a large moustache (above) in preparation for the Malaysian Grand Prix on April 4. Apparently the German this week tested his performance with the extra facial hair, first in his own private F1 simulator and then at the Mercedes team’s facility in Brackley.

Unconfirmed reports also suggest Schumacher may attempt an unprecedented double of the F1 World Drivers Championship and the World Beard and Moustache Championship, which takes place in Trondheim, Norway on May 14, 2011 – though there is some concern that this may clash with the 2011 Monaco GP.

It is believed that Schumacher has approached a number of experts for advice on his plan, including Keke Rosberg, father of his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg and one of only three drivers to win the World Drivers Championship while wearing a moustache. Rosberg senior also formed half of the only fully-moustachioed driver line-up in F1 history with Nigel Mansell at Williams-Honda in 1985 (left).

Schumacher has also retained Karl-Heinz Hille (right), the German who won the 2003 World Beard and Moustache Championship, as a technical consultant for his 2011 programme.

The Sepang race was chosen as the beginning of the race programme because it is one of F1’s most technical tracks, and thus provides a serious test of both driver and car.

Schumacher already holds the F1 records for the most drivers championships, Grand Prix wins, pole positions, front-row starts, fastest laps, podium finishes and championship points, together with the longest winning career and looks set to extend those records during his three years with Mercedes GP.

According to Der Narrvonheute, Mercedes Grand Prix has already confirmed with the FIA that if Schumacher wins the 2011 championship bearded, he will be the first official beard-wearing world champion in the history of Formula 1.

The FIA has apparently ruled that neither Jenson Button’s 2009 stubble nor Jacques Villeneuve’s similar effort in 1997 constituted a beard as defined in the F1 Sporting Regulations.

The first moustachioed World Drivers Champion was Graham Hill (left) in 1962. Hill is the only driver to win the world title twice with facial hair – a record which Schumacher could attempt to equal in 2011/2012.

Karl-Heinz Hille image: Todd Huffman