Michael Schumacher existed as motor racing's best-kept secret prior to his explosive debut season in 1991. Since then he has seldom been away from the front of the grid, displaying fantastic car control and electrifying speed. A quiet man away from the track, Michael has been involved in more than his fair share of controversy on it, but remains among the best exponents of wet-weather driving.

After a successful karting career - aided by the fact that the Schumacher family operated the local Kerpen circuit - Michael moved into the German Formula Konig series. En route to securing the 1988 title, Schumacher also dabbled with the national and European Formula Ford championships. He finished 6th in his homeland, but one win and a string of solid finishes allowed him to take 2nd overall behind Mika Salo in the Euro series.

The success of his first season in cars allowed Schumacher to move up to Formula Three in 1989, finishing runner-up in the German series, with two wins. He also took a heat win in Macau but, in spite of opportunities to progress, Michael decided to make a second attempt on the German F3 championship. He took the crown courtesy of five wins, and the Macau title also came his way, following a heated battle with Mika Hakkinen.

Instead of graduating to the F3000 series, Michael opted for a second season of World Sports Cars in 1991. Along with 1989 F3 rivals Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Karl Wendlinger, Schumacher had been selected to represent the Mercedes Junior Team in the 1990 WSC series, and rewarded his employers with victory in Mexico. The second year in the championship was equally successful with a win at the Autopolis circuit in Japan en route to ninth place in the standings.

Whilst in Japan, Schumacher took advantage of the chance to sample F3000. Racing in the Japanese national series, he finished second in his sole outing, but this, combined with his sportscar performances, was enough to convince Eddie Jordan that Schumacher was worth a run in Formula One.

The German's incredible 1991 season culminated in six F1 races - but with two teams. After his Belgian debut, in which he qualified seventh but retired on the opening lap, Schumacher was poached from under Jordan's nose by the Benetton team. Five races with the Anglo-Italian squad resulted in three points finishes and began a relationship, which would put Schumacher on top of the world.

Exactly one year after his F1 debut, Schumacher topped the podium, winning the 1992 Belgian GP, en route to third in the championship. A second victory took slightly longer to arrive, however, coming in Portugal the following year, as Schumacher finished the season fourth overall.

Benetton were looking increasingly stronger, however, and the pairing eventually won a championship in 1994. Nevertheless, several controversial incidents prevented Michael from clinching the crown until the final race. A two-race ban for overtaking on the warm-up lap at the British GP, and disqualification from the Belgian race, saw Schumacher's series lead eroded by Damon Hill and the pair arrived in Australia separated by a single point. In the first of their celebrated collisions, Schumacher and Hill were both forced out of the race, handing the title to the German.

A second title the following year was slightly easier to come by, as Schumacher equalled Nigel Mansell's record tally of nine wins in a season and dominated proceedings. He did not have things all his own way, however, and two further collisions with Hill (at Silverstone and Monza) tainted the celebrations.

A massive salary rise and the chance to put Ferrari back on the map enticed Schumacher to Maranello for the 1996 season. Although the car he was given was both unreliable and ill-handling, Schumacher wrestled it to three wins and third place overall.

The following year saw him improve to second in the championship as he took the title fight to favourite Jacques Villeneuve. Five wins with the inconsistent F310B allowed Michael to remain in the championship hunt until the final round at Jerez, but another contentious collision, this time with Villeneuve himself, saw the Ferrari retire, handing the title to the Canadian. Schumacher was later removed from the championship standings for his part in the incident.

The German remained at Ferrari for 1998 but, despite confident predictions that the team would be ready to win the title, Schumacher once again lost out, this time to the markedly improved McLarens. Nevertheless, he remained the only real challenger to their supremacy and race wins in the latter half of the season continued to push the title race all the way to the final round.

Controversy once again came Michael's way as he collided with McLaren's David Coulthard in Belgium despite seemingly having the race in his pocket. The German returned to the pits on three wheels before storming into the McLaren pit and accusing Coulthard of trying to kill him.

Having learned the lessons of previous seasons, Schumacher began 1999 by refusing to say that Ferrari would win the title. He was, however, quietly optimistic that this may have, indeed, been the year of the Prancing Horse but was ultimately frustrated by a leg-breaking shunt at the British GP. Returning for the season's final two races in order to lend a hand to team-mate Irvine's title challenge, Schumacher promptly took pole and dominated the race in Malaysia.

The 2000 campaign saw the German partnered by Rubens Barrichello at Ferrari, and was the year in which it all went right for the Scuderia. A record-equaling nine wins, including three straight at the beginning of the year and another four in a row at the end, clinched Ferrari's first drivers' title since 1979, and Schumacher's third since his impactful entry to F1. In all, the German scored 108 points to nearest challenger Mika Hakkinen's 89 and, had it not been for two successive mid-season accidents - on the startline in both Germany and Austria - the gap could have been even greater.

For 2001, Ferrari managed to retain the line-up that brought it that success. Despite rumours that several key technical members may have been tempted to pastures new, Ross Brawn, Jean Todt, Paolo Martinelli and Rory Byrne all remained on board, determined to give Schumacher a fourth crown and Ferrari back-to-back triumphs.

Their decision paid off and Schumacher dominated the season. The new F2001 looked full of potential right from Melbourne onwards and, as his challengers self-destructed, Schumacher was again the man to beat.

Nine wins in the season equalled the record the German already shared with Nigel Mansell, but the title was sewn up by Hungary mid-summer and further successes saw the now four-time champion surpass Alain Prost's records for career wins and total points.

Sadly for the rest of the field, much the same occurred in 2002. Indeed, 2002 was the year Michael romped to his fifth world title, equally the record set by Juan Manuel Fangio, who also won five world titles, in 1951, '54, '55, '56, and '57.

Schumacher won the title in record breaking time, clinching the crown at the French GP on July 21st. Indeed the German would win on 11 occasions - a new record for the most in a season - and just for good measure he also finished second five times and third once. In total he scored 144 points, compared to the 77 notched up by his team-mate, Rubens Barrichello and, yes, you guessed it, this was another record. Not only for the number of points scored but also his winning margin was the greatest to date.

Granted the relationship with Bridgestone gave Ferrari a massive advantage, but the Scuderia used this to full effect, and Michael did the rest on the track, and even starting with the revamped 2001 car didn’t slow him down.

It wasn’t all good though, the 'Austria-gate' affair was a big blemish on his year. The decision by Ferrari to order Rubens Barrichello to give Michael the win went down like a lead balloon. The crowd reacted angrily and booed him on the podium. The media also went mad and this was without a doubt one of the most difficult moments of his career. Indeed it went down so badly that the FIA later introduced a rule banning team orders. Whether this will stop them is highly unlikely, but it will stop such blatant use, such as that seen at the A1-Ring. Something the fans didn’t like one little bit.

A similar situation occurred at the US GP, this time Michael tried for a formation finish, unfortunately it back-fired and his team-mate, Barrichello took the win. It may not have been as controversial as Austria, but again it was disappointing after such a good 'race'.

2003 was another Michael-Ferrari-Bridgestone year, although only just, with all three parties having to fight every step of the way. Schumacher though eventually triumphed, winning a record breaking sixth drivers' title at the final race of the season. It was by no means an easy year though, and despite scooping six more wins, the new points system meant that Kimi Raikkonen was in with a chance right to the death. Michael though eventually took the title with 93 points, two more than his Finnish rival.

At the end of 2003, there was much speculation that Michael might retire, however this proved to be wide of the mark.

2004 was again all about Michael and Ferrari - no surprise there - and in many ways it was similar to 2002, in that the German and his team stormed to both titles, with little or no opposition. Michael eventually took his seventh title at Spa at the end of August, and in total he won 13 of the 18 races, scoring 148 points. Only on two occasions did he fail to finish in the points, retiring at Monte Carlo and having a rare off day in Shanghai.

As the benchmark by which the rest of the F1 field was judged, many expected Schumacher to continue his domination of the sport into 2005, but anyone taking that view couldn’t have been further from the truth.

Starting the season with a modified version of the F2004 that had carried him to his seventh title, it soon became apparent that Ferrari had been left behind by rivals Renault and McLaren as Schumacher only picked up two points from the opening two races before the F2005 was rushed out early for Bahrain. The new car helped him qualify on the front row in the Middle East before a retirement but it was in San Marino where Schumcher really shone – only missing out on victory thanks to an inspired drive by Fernando Alonso who did all he could to keep the Ferrari behind despite intense pressure in the closing laps of the race.

Having taken 13 wins during 2004, it was a bizarre sight to see Schumacher struggling to make it on the podium on a regular basis, with only four more top-three finishes over the course of the year and a solitary win in America – although that win was down more to the fact that only six cars took the start of the race rather than the speed of the Ferrari.

After a tough finish to the year, when he scored just seven points in the final six races of the year, Schumacher will be keen to try and regain in his title in a season many believe could be his final one in the sport. With Bridgestone taking on more teams for the 2006 season, Ferrari will have more support in developing tyres – something which undoubtedly worked against the team in 2005 – and only a fool would bet against the German driver being involved in the title battle over the coming year.