11 years ago, Michael Schumacher equaled Juan-Manuel Fangio

It was exactly 11 years ago, July 21, 2002. In a way, the outcome seemed a foregone conclusion. Michael Schumacher, at the wheel of a F2002, simply unbeatable that year, dominated the world championship of Formula 1. Already winner of the last two world titles in 2000 and 2001 with the Team Ferrari, the German was moving inevitably towards his fifth coronation: of the first ten Grands Prix run that year, the "Kaiser" had already won seven, and had never left the podium. It simply remained to be seen when his fate would be sealed.

Arriving in Nièvre for the French Grand Prix, mathematically Michael Schumacher could already be titled. Powerless on a regular basis, all his opponents were then keen to postpone the deadline as long as possible. This is particularly what Juan-Pablo Montoya tried to do, then at Williams, taking pole position on Saturday. But the next day in the race, there was nothing to do, the pace set by the German was too high. Which did not prevent him, however, from making a mistake: after a refueling, the “Red Baron” bit the white line and was penalized with a compulsory passage through the pits. The cards had just been redistributed.

Kimi Räikkönen, for his first year with McLaren, found himself in the lead and flew towards what was shaping up to be the first victory of his young career. But Michael Schumacher did not give up and gradually came back on the Finn, to the point of finding himself behind him in the final laps of the race. It was at this moment that “Iceman” lost control of his McLaren when braking on a patch of oil at the Adelaide hairpin. In ambush, the Ferrari driver did not miss his chance and took the lead. There were only five laps left to go, before he won a fifth title and joined the great Juan-Manuel Fangio.

“The hardest tricks of my life”

“Once I was in the lead, the hardest laps of my life began, because I realized what I was doing, and it never stopped”, expressed Michael Schumacher after the race. “I could feel a huge weight on my shoulders, an incredible pressure. When I took the checkered flag, I felt an explosion of emotions, because I realized how important this victory was to me and how much I loved this sport. All titles are special, each in a different way, it's like victories: you can never get used to them. »

Six races before the end of the year, Michael Schumacher was already crowned. No one has ever won the title so early in the middle of the season: a record that still stands today. Following this success, the German won two other world titles, in 2003 and 2004, becoming the only driver to obtain five in a row and seven in total. To which are added 30 new victories, for a total of 91.