F1 icon Schumacher's birthday and still inspiring at age 54

One of Formula 1's greatest icons has his birthday today. Michael Schumacher turns 54 today. It is also just over nine years since the seven-time F1 champion suffered a serious skiing accident in the French Alps.

It is still not a birthday in full health for the German. On 29 December of 2013, Schumacher was skiing with his son Mick Schumacher (then 14 years old) in Méribel, France, where he suffered a tragic skiing accident. Since then, the German has not appeared in public and there has been speculation about his condition. About his current situation, the family is not releasing much. What we do know is that he is still around and that Schummi has aged another year.

Schumacher track record

Because of his track record in Formula 1, Schumacher remains a great inspiration to many drivers on the grid and beyond. Indeed, the former Ferrari driver is a seven-time world champion. He became champion twice in 1994 and 1995 with Renault Benetton. From 2000 to 2004, he took the title every year with Ferrari. No driver ever did that before of him or passed him after that. Even Lewis Hamilton who came level with the German in 2020 has failed to do so in the past two years.

Schumacher drove more than 300 races in his F1 career of no less than 19 seasons. The F1 great has staggering figures behind his name. The Ferrari icon won almost 30 per cent of all F1 races he drove (91 wins total) and stood on the podium in more than half of 307 F1 races. Schumacher drove the fastest lap of a race 77 times, made a hat-trick 22 times (pole position, win and fastest race lap) and won five grand slams (pole position, win, fastest race lap, lead in race not lost once). No less than 68 times Schumacher was in pole position, he ended up with exactly as many poles as DNFs.