In the 70-year history of Formula 1 there have been many pairs of brothers – but in most of them only one of the two was successful, if at all. Who remembers Jimmy Stewart, brother of three-time champion Jackie? Or Jacques Villeneuve Senior, brother of the legendary Gilles?
In 1997, Germany also got its Formula 1 siblings: Ralf Schumacher, younger brother of the two-time world champion Michael, got a place with Jordan after a year as a champion in the Japanese Formula Nippon, and proved early on: He didn’t just have that Name, but also the driving talent. He got a podium in his first year, after two years he switched to Williams, and from 2000 onwards he became a works driver thanks to their partnership with BMW. In 2001 he had a victorious car with the BMW-Williams FW23 and won his first GP in Imola.
But the benchmark for the 2001 season was big brother Michael, now three-time world champion after his first title with Ferrari. Would Ralf also be able to prevail in a direct duel between brothers? The answer was waiting for the eighth round of the season in Canada.
Schumacher duel for victory
The qualifying was clearly dominated by Michael, he drove the competition by half a second. But next to him in the first row – Ralf. At the start Michael didn’t give him a chance and put the pole perfectly into the lead. But then Ralf turned on. Lap after lap he stayed at the rear of the Ferrari for a second.
He couldn’t find the way past, Michael knew how to defend himself. Until he had to pit on lap 46. Freed from the Ferrari, Ralf turned up on the track, drove a new fastest lap four times over the next five laps, and only then came into the pits. When he left this, he only saw Michael’s Ferrari in the rearview mirror. The victory was his.
With the result Ralf in front of Michael, of all things, Schumacher wrote history, for the first time there was a fraternal double victory. The defeated Michael could cope with the defeat: “If you lose, then against Ralf. Mum and dad will be proud of us.” And anyway – Ralf ended his career with six wins. Michael with seven world titles and 91 wins.
Formula 1 14 years ago today: Kubica horror overshadowed Hamilton victory
Incidentally, the winning record no longer belongs to Schumacher, but to Lewis Hamilton. However, 14 years ago today there was a zero here. But on the weekend of the 2007 Canadian GP, Hamilton was thinking of changing that in his sixth Formula 1 race.
On Saturday he had already prevailed against his McLaren colleague, the reigning world champion Fernando Alonso, in qualifying and secured the first pole of his career. At the start he successfully defended it against Alonso, who rode out and damaged the car. Hamilton began to control the race at the front. While the great drama was going on behind him.
Hamilton was also lucky with the pit stop and came in just before a safety car phase. At the restart, Robert Kubica drove the Toyota of Jarno Trulli on the back and dismantled his BMW on the concrete wall in front of the hairpin in a horror accident. First shock, then the all-clear: Kubica had only injured his leg and suffered a concussion. He only had to sit out the US GP next weekend.
Hamilton was not impressed by the increasing chaos of accidents behind him and drove the first victory solidly to the finish, and was now eight points ahead of Alonso in the World Cup. Nick Heidfeld was able to maintain himself in second place, while Williams driver Alex Wurz drove off from 19 on the grid, suffered a rear wing damage, and still managed to achieve the third podium of his career thanks to a one-stop strategy. And another one could shine: Takuma Sato finished sixth with a Super Aguri, the last F1 points for the team.
What else happened:
3 years ago: Sebastian Vettel celebrates his 50th Formula 1 victory in an unusually unexciting Canadian GP, ahead of Valtteri Bottas in the Mercedes and Max Verstappen in the Red Bull.
9 years ago: In a tire battle, Lewis Hamilton prevailed for McLaren and celebrated the next Canada victory, while Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso misjudged the tires. They just tried to stop, but made it too early and their tires fell off the infamous “cliff”. Romain Grosjean and Sergio Perez sneak onto the podium using better-split one-stop strategies. Hamilton is the seventh winner in the seventh race – a record.
31 years ago: The McLaren drivers Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger prepared to dominate in Canada in 1990. But Berger received a one-minute penalty due to a jump start. Senna immediately gave him the lead, and Berger tried to gain enough lead over the next few laps to still be classified behind Senna in P2. It wasn’t enough – he crossed the finish line with a lead of just 45 seconds, finishing fourth behind Senna, Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell.
80 years ago: David Walker is born. After success in British Formula 3, he received the second factory Lotus in 1972. There his career was executed by his teammate Emerson Fittipaldi – Fittipaldi won five of the twelve races and became world champion, Walker scored zero points (a unique one in F1 history) and two top 10 finishes. One parted in the bad. Walker complained that Fittipaldi was preferred, the Lotus management complained of inadequate performance. Walker ended his career in 1975 after two traffic accidents.
81 years ago: Peter Ryan is born. He was the first Canadian to start a Formula 1 race in 1961 and finished ninth at Watkins Glen. In 1962 he celebrated his first successes in junior classes in Europe, then he had a fatal accident in a formula junior race in Reims.
86 years ago: Vic Elford is born. The Briton is considered to be one of the best all-rounders of the 60s. Elford won the European rally championship in 1967, was a fixture in sports car racing for years with victories at the classics of Daytona, Sebring and the Targa Florio, and he drove 13 F1 races in which he scored eight points.
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Markus Steinrisser
Motorsport-Magazin.com editor
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