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The year was 2002 and Michael Schumacher had just won his third F1 title in a row (and fifth overall). Ferrari's rise to the top with him behind the wheel could not have been more obvious now. Anything and everything that could go the team and the German driver's way, went.
Years later, Schumacher described 2002 as his 'perfect' F1 season. So what happened that year which led to the German calling it 'perfect'? Let's take a look.
The context for that season
The 2002 F1 season was the first occasion where Michael Schumacher was facing a completely different challenge. All of his rivals, with whom he had rubbed shoulders until then, had either retired or were in uncompetitive cars. His arch-rival Mika Hakkinen retired in 2001 (although, at the time, it was termed a sabbatical). Damon Hill, the man Schumacher beat to become world champion in 1994 had retired. Finally, Jacques Villeneuve's performance levels had dropped off a cliff.
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Many experts had started to speculate that Michael Schumacher would be next and it was only a matter of time before he called it quits on his career.
How good was Michael Schumacher that season?
Not one to be drawn into any such discussions, Schumacher responded to all of these speculations on the track. The driver put together one of the most consistent F1 seasons by a driver in the sport's history.
From the very first race, it became obvious that the Schumacher-Ferrari package was going to be hard to beat. As the season progressed, it became more and more clear as the German pulled off one impressive result after the other.
Out of the 17 races that season, Schumacher won 11, he finished P2 in five of them and P3 in just one race in Malaysia. The Ferrari driver finished all 17 races on the podium, with the worst result being P3.
He finished the season with almost double the points scored by the driver who finished in P2 (Rubens Barrichello's 77 to Michael Schumacher's 144).
The season's performance was perfect in so many ways as Schumacher showed that he still had the hunger to fight for championships. He also showed that the new generation of drivers like Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen still had some way to go before they could reach his level.
Most importantly, he leveled Juan Manuel Fangio's record of 5 world championships and became the most successful driver in the history of the sport.
