Franz Tost claims Ralf had the same potential to win titles as brother Michael Schumacher but lacked the consistency to produce results.
The name ‘Schumacher’ is one of the most coveted names in the world of F1. As soon as you hear it, you think of 7-time World Champion Michael Schumacher, the legend of the sport.
Recent fans of the sport might even name Mick, Michael’s son who joined F1 in 2021 and drives for Haas. But many would have forgotten Micheal’s younger brother, Ralf Schumacher.
Ralf debuted with Jordan, just like his elder brother, in the 1997 season. He then moved to Williams spending 6 seasons there. Ralf later moved to Toyota with whom he last raced in 2007.
He won his first race in 2001, at San Marino GP. This made the Schumacher’s the only pair of siblings to win F1 races. And Ralf finished the season fourth in the Drivers’ Championship, with 49 points, his best finish to date.
Schumacher raced in German F3 for Weber-Trella Stuttgart Racing (WTS). The team boss of WTS was Franz Tost who worked alongside the Schumacher brothers.
Franz is currently the Team principal of the Scuderia AlphaTauri F1 team. And the Austrian has been a part of F1 since 2000 and witnessed both the Schumacher’s race in F1.
He recalls the younger Schumacher by saying, “Ralf was sensationally fast, incredibly talented. He learned very quickly and implemented everything very quickly.”
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Why Ralf struggled unlike brother Michael Schumacher
In 1996 Ralf Schumacher raced in the Formula Nippon Series in Japan. This is an extremely intense racing series for European drivers. Yet Ralf managed to win it in his rookie season becoming only the 4th European driver to win the title.
But Ralf wanted to move out of Japan and make a move to F1 like his brother Michael. At that time Michael was recently crowned a double world Champion winning his second title in 1995 with Benetton.
Franz told, “I went to Japan with Ralf but he didn’t enjoy the stay there that much. Because his contract was actually designed for two years, I said to him ‘win the championship in the first year, then you can shorten the time in Japan’. And that’s what he did.”
Ralf ultimately made move to F1 and even tested for Mclaren. But the move fizzled out and he debuted with Jordan instead. But it was with Williams whom he enjoyed his best days winning 6 races.
However, he still could not challenge for titles like Michael did. Despite that Williams was on par with Ferrari in the early 2000s. Had he been able to find a bit more consistency, he might have been a title contender.
He also faced stiff competition in Williams from the likes of Jenson Button and Juan Pablo Montoya. But Franz Tost claims 2 serious accidents are also to be blamed.
he said, “His problem? He was never in the right place at the right time, otherwise, he would have won titles like his brother. What ultimately cost him his speed were two severe accidents. Once when testing in Monza and the crash at Indianapolis. You couldn’t just put that away.”
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