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There probably is very little that we can tell you about him that you don't already know. Summed up best by his amazing number of GP wins - currently standing at around 53! Not to mention the small matter of four world championships.

We're kind of interested to see how he does in 2002 and we doubt it'll be quite so easy this time around. 2001 was a bit of a cakewalk for Herr Schumacher but we suspect that with stronger competition from Little Bro and a certain colombian in those Williams's not to mention up and coming Kimi in the McLaren things might not be quite such a stroll in the park

Over the last few years he has been widely slated in the English press, mainly for incidents relating to a tendency to barge rivals of the track in his ongoing quest for the championship. 1994 with Damon Hill and 1997 with Jacques Villeneuve being the most obvious cases. Whilst these, particularly 1997 were undoubtably his fault, and not entirely accidental, two things tend to get forgotten. Firstly the decision to steer into Jacques was taken in a fraction of a second. With the sort of pressure he had on him then to win for Ferrari, and the adrenaline any racer must feel in that kind of situation it's an understandable, reaction. Secondly the attempt to take Jacques out has been dealt with. He was disqualified from the 1997 championship and stripped of his second place. It's time for people to stop harping on about it.

Since then his behaviour has been nothing short of first-rate. In Suzuka 1998 there was no move to take out Hakkinen and only a sportsman like hug for the victor as he returned to the paddock. Not everyone would have done that.

In 2000 and 2001 when he managed to win two well-deserved championships it was in both times by a commanding margin and never was there any incidents that could be criticised. David Coulthard has mentioned is start-line manouveres but this is as far as we're concerned only racing, and if DC doesn't like it then maybe he's in the wrong profession. Ralf was also said to be unhappy about this at the Nurburgring but we suspect that had more to do with annoyance at the stewards for awarding him a penalty.

Perhaps the championship could go the way of the Williams. We'd certainly like to think that Ralfie could finally be a match for Michael but somehow something tells us that this is going to end up being Championship No 5.

Don't expect it finished by Hungary this year though!