Celebrating Michael Schumacher's 51st birthday: What happened in F1 in 1969?

Michael Schumacher is celebrating his 51st birthday today (Friday, January 3). The seven-time world champion remains one of the biggest, if not biggest, racing legends across the world of motorsport, not just Formula 1. The German continues to recover slowly from a serious skiing injury which occurred six years ago. 

Schumacher currently holds the record of 91 Grands Prix victory, but that is likely to be beaten during the 2020 F1 season with Lewis Hamilton hunting him down. The British driver could also match Schumacher's title tally with a fourth consecutive championship at Mercedes. 

To help celebrate Schumacher's birthday, we thought we'd have a flashback to the year Schumacher was born. 

What happened in F1 1969?

Back then, there were just 11 races on the F1 calendar and the season was wrapped up by the October 19. The season started with the South African Grand Prix in Kyalami. Sir Jackie Stewart led all 80 laps to get his championship-winning season off to the perfect start. The Matra Ford Cosworth went on to win five out of the first six races with victories in Spain, Netherlands, France and Britain to follow. 

The 1969 Monaco Grand Prix was the only race in the opening six which Stewart failed to win. The British legend started from pole position and led for 22 laps until his car broke down. Fellow Brit Graham Hill took the lead and went on to win the race. Stewart comfortably won the championship despite scoring just three points in the final three races while his closest rival Jacky Ickx picked up two podiums. 

Non-Championship races

In 1969, there were four races not to count towards the F1 world championship. Three of these took place in Britain, while the other occurred in Spain's Madrid. Stewart and Ickx both won one race each while there were also wins for Jack Brabham and Keith Holland.