Michael Schumacher - Kishodarran Rajaderan

German ace Michael Schumacher is widely recognised as being the world's best ever racer.  Michael is a 7 times F1 World Champion and now he driving for the Mercedes GP Petronas Formula One Team.

In 1995 Michael became the (at that time) youngest double Formula 1 World Champion (1994 and 1995 seasons) ever. He is also the 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004 World Champion. This phenomenal record speaks for itself. His sixth title in 2003 beat Juan Manuel Fangio's long standing record of five championships from the 1950s. Schuey announced his retirement from F1 racing at the end of the 2006 season and was retained in a consultancy role by Ferrari. However, from 2010 Michael sensationally returned to F1 racing, by signing a 3 year contract to race for the Mercedes GP team.

Michael's last championship title in 2004 was secured before the season end, taking his total number of titles to 7. Memorably, he did this by finishing 2nd at Spa in Belgium, in Ferrari's 700th race, to accumulate enough points to seal the deal.

Michael also holds the F1 records for: most career wins (91), most wins in a season, most career pole positions, most points during a season (148 in 2004), most consecutive world championships (5), most consecutive race wins (2004), most podium finsihes (154), most laps leading, most fastest laps (76), plus several others!

Michael was at one point the highest paid racing driver in the world and second highest earning sportsman in the world, earning a reported $80 million US in 2004 ($40m of which was his salary from Ferrari). Whilst they were both racing in F1, his younger brother Ralf was the 3rd highest paid driver in Formula 1 in 1999 and whose pay after the 2000 season was raised to US$15.5 million.

Schuey showed excellent racecraft at 2011 Italian GP

Schuey reminded us all of his superb racecraft and also how exciting wheel to wheel F1 racing can be (particularly before DRS and its easy and essentially skilless overtaking was introduced into F1).

Schuey passed a sleeping Hamilton after the safety car restart and maintained his position ahead of the McLaren for a number of laps. Demonstrating his experience, knowledge of the Monza circuit and excellent racecraft, he took lines and placed his car perfectly to prevent an overtake by Hamilton.

FIA regulations state a driver can move once to defend his position - and this is what Schuey did - then retaking the racing line into corners. The legitamteness of his moves is clearly demonstrated as he received no penalty or call to the stewards.

The complaints from Hamilton on his team radio smack of "gaming" to try to induce the (listening) stewards into penalising Schumacher, since Hamilton could not find a way past him on the track. For a racing driver who likes to compare himself to Senna, this is embarassing.

What we saw was close racing between two different generations of driver, something Schuey and Hamilton fans alike have been waiting to see since Schuey's return. The question - what would have happened if these two had been racing in the same era? Perhaps the tussle at Monza is one of the best indications we will ever see. Although Hamilton likes to see himself as an aggressive driver and tough overtaker in the mould of Senna, he was clearly bettered by Michael. His moaning on the radio only weakens the image he tries to portray.

It will probably come as no surprise to those who watched the BBC TV feed that Martin Brundle and David Coulthard pounced on the opportunity to criticise Michael. Rather than marvel at an exciting wheel to wheel battle (one of the most interesting we have seen for a long time in F1), their focus was on looking for fault in Michael's driving. Perhaps if they had driven harder (something both Hamilton and Schumacher do) they might have gotten closer to a world championship? Brundle even went and asked Charlie Whiting if the stewards can propose a penalty without waiting for the FIA to suggest an investigation. Coulthard even pulled out the FIA regulations manual mid-race and started reading it aloud (asking co-commentator Brundle to keep his eye on the track while he was reading)! The sour grapes from these two drivers who were throughlybettered by Schuey during their time racing against him never seem to go away. He can only hope neither are never invited to be the fourth steward while he is racing (the outcome would be inevitable, as it was when Damon Hill was in that position at Monaco 2010).

Schuey racing in F1 over 2010-12 for Mercedes GP

Michael has returned to F1 to race for the Mercedes GP Petronas team over 2010-12, having signed a three year contract with them. Nico Rosberg is his team mate. The move sees Michael reunited with Ross Brawn, who he worked with to win all of his world titles.

It marks the first time recent champions Hamilton and Vettel have raced against the legend.

When announcing his return at the end of 2009 Schuey made the following comment, "I have decided to return to Formula One. Mercedes GP and I agreed on teaming up for the coming 3 seasons. And to be honest, I'm already super excited by the prospect to be back in a F1 cockpit.

I don't want to deny at all that the idea of a German F1 team extremely tempts me. I guess every German driver would feel this way. And of course it plays a major role that I again can work together with Ross at Mercedes GP. Above all, however, my old hunger for racing is back. In Abu Dhabi, when Ross asked me if I could imagine returning to F1, I felt that I wasn't ready for it. But only two weeks later, when he called me once again, I realized that my old passion was returning. Suddenly I was on fire again. For me, the imagination to be back in a F1 car and to compete for the world championships is exciting and extremely inspiring.

To put it simply: I'm totally fired up for next year!"

Team mate Rosberg commeted, "It is fantastic that Michael is returning to Formula One and will be my team-mate at MERCEDES GP PETRONAS. It’s a great challenge for me to be up against one of the best drivers of all time."