'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,/9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAQAAAQABAAD/2wCEAAMDAwMDAwQEBAQFBQUFBQcHBgYHBwsICQgJCAsRCwwLCwwLEQ8SDw4PEg8bFRMTFRsfGhkaHyYiIiYwLTA+PlQBAwMDAwMDBAQEBAUFBQUFBwcGBgcHCwgJCAkICxELDAsLDAsRDxIPDg8SDxsVExMVGx8aGRofJiIiJjAtMD4+VP/AABEIAAYACgMBIgACEQEDEQH/xABeAAEBAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABwgQAAIBBAMBAQAAAAAAAAAAAAIDEQABBAUGBxITIgEBAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgURAAMAAwEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAECAwAFEVH/2gAMAwEAAhEDEQA/AL31p2W1vbfNOF6PW4mHlbXkL8pOa1dzGysexE4nDYpIogFgMDatao2vKgQoX63V/awDZnjNb49R+vMpmJpSjIlienuUtrGUKRE1Choqx56c/9k='%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
The year was 1996 when Michael Schumacher joined Ferrari. The Italian giants had become synonymous with Formula 1 and was arguably considered the most prestigious outfit to be a part of. Having said that, the Scuderia didn't have the kind of success that would justify its reputation.
It last won the title in 1979 with Jody Scheckter and since then there had been far too many hits and misses. It was at this point that Schumacher, the reigning two-time world champion and the undisputed best driver on the grid, decided to join Ferrari. It was a surprise move because, at the time, the German could have walked into any team in F1 and got a seat. He could have continued his stint at Benetton and would likely have won another championship.
Trending
He could have even moved to Williams, a team that was the benchmark at the time, or to McLaren, a team that the great Ayrton Senna made home.
However, Schumacher chose a different path as, at the prime of his career, he moved to a team that had not won a title in 17 years. He toiled hard with the team for four years until he finally won the coveted title in 2000 - the first of an unprecedented five consecutive world championships.
The German announced his first retirement from the sport after the 2006 season - when he lost out to Fernando Alonso in the championship.
Fast forward 17 years and Ferrari have won just a single championship in the post-Schumacher era - with Kimi Raikkonen in 2007. Most importantly, with every passing failure for Ferrari, the "Greatest Of All Time" legacy of Schumacher keeps getting stronger.
The reigns of failure
Since Michael Schumacher's retirement, we've had F1 legends like Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel fail in their pursuit of a title with Ferrari. While Alonso is a two-time world champion and is still going strong, his five-year stint with the Scuderia did not prove to be successful.
Sebastian Vettel was a four-time world champion when he joined the team but even he was unable to accomplish the ultimate.
The team currently has a splendid driver in Charles Leclerc but the title remains elusive. What makes Schumacher's time with Ferrari even more special is not only what happened after he left but also what was going on before he joined.
Before Schumacher joined Ferrari, it wasn't as if some of the more accomplished drivers did not try their hand with the team. Drivers like Gilles Villeneuve, Didier Pironi, Nigel Mansell, and Alain Prost tried and failed to bring home the title.
In more than four decades, there has only been one driver that has achieved a level of sustained success with Ferrari and that's Schumacher. No other driver, including multiple world champions, was able to get it done.
What makes Michael Schumacher's success even more special
What makes his success with Ferrari even more special is the fact that in the last four decades, there has only been one individual that has been able to crack the code. Schumacher moved to Ferrari and he knew from the get-go that things needed to be changed. He toiled for five years, brought Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne with him, and transformed an underperforming unit into a championship-winning juggernaut.
It's safe to say that none of it was done alone by the German and he had an able leader in Jean Todt, but it's also hard to deny that a lot of the steps that were taken had Schumacher's signature all over it. What was even more impressive was that he didn't have to do all of this at that stage of his career.
He could have easily followed the path chosen by almost every F1 driver in the history of the sport, i.e. going to the team with the fastest car. He didn't do that. He went to an underperforming, inefficient unit marred by politics and transformed it into one of the most feared teams of his time. This was unprecedented in the sport and most importantly, since his departure, the team has been unable to capture that same glory.
Why no other driver's success comes close
The reason why no other driver comes close to this is because such a legacy is unprecedented. No driver has ever gone to a team that did not win for more than a decade and transformed it into a championship-winning juggernaut. Niki Lauda went to Ferrari in the 70s but even he did not have the kind of sustained success that Schumacher did.
Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna with McLaren, Jackie Stewart with Tyrell, Sebastian Vettel with Red Bull, and even Lewis Hamilton with Mercedes are some of the legendary driver-team partnerships.
However, in terms of the transformative success that Schumacher had with Ferrari, no one else comes close and this sets him apart from anybody else in the history of the sport.
Michael Schumacher - The GOAT driver
Finally, talking about Michael Schumacher 'the driver,' it's hard to deny the kind of impact he had on the sport. It's not often in F1 that you see a driver being termed the undisputed best driver on the grid for close to a decade.
Ever since the sport lost Ayrton Senna in 1994, Schumacher became the benchmark for the F1 grid. Until 2005, when the likes of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen started emerging, he was the undisputed king.
We haven't seen this before with any other driver in the history of the sport. Be it Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Jackie Stewart, Lewis Hamilton, or anybody else. No driver can claim to be the most sought-after entity for almost a decade.
The GOAT debate is fun, and more often than not, it is arbitrary. Having said that, what cannot be denied is that Schumacher's legacy grows stronger with every passing year. Every year Ferrari fails to compete for or win the world championship is a reminder of how tough and almost impossible it is to win with that team.
Schumacher did and for that very reason, his name continues to be kept at the highest tier when we talk about the greatest to ever do it.
