OCTOBER 25, 2001

Schumacher is not the record man!

Michael Schumacher is supposed to have become the highest scoring driver in the history of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship this year but it seems that everyone has forgotten that the German driver was officially excluded from the 1997 World Championship.

Michael Schumacher, Japanese GP 2001
© The Cahier Archive

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER is supposed to have become the highest scoring driver in the history of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship this year but it seems that everyone has forgotten that the German driver was officially excluded from the 1997 World Championship - even if he was allowed to keep his race wins. The decision, taken by the FIA World Council in November 1997, concluded that Michael Schumacher's swerve into the side of Jacques Villeneuve's Williams at Jerez in the World Championship decider had been "instinctive and deliberate but was not premeditated" and considered banning the German from the 1998 World Championship. This radical course of action was rejected and Schumacher's punishment was to be thrown out of the World Championship although his results remain in the record books. Schumacher was also forced to take part in the FIA road safety campaign in 1998.

In other words, Schumacher's career total of World Championship points is not 801 but rather 723 as the 78 points in 1997 do not count.

Alain Prost's record of 789.5 points remains the record as a result.