F1 legend Michael Schumacher raced in F1 for 18 seasons and it was filled with everything from the glory of 7 championship titles to the ‘villain tag.’
Schumacher was unable to shrug off the negative tag from himself although to be fair he tried close to nothing to get rid of it.
The German legend made his debut in Formula 1 in the 1991 season with the Jordan F1 team and had a horrible year in his rookie season. He left the Jordan team halfway through the season and moved to Benetton.
Schumacher only began to rise to fame from the 1994 season with Benetton. The 1994 season was also the one that got him the tag of villain.
The biggest highlight of the season came at the 1994 British Grand Prix as the German tried to pip Damon Hill to the championship title.
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Michael Schumacher cost his team $500,000 in fine
Schumacher had entered the 1994 British Grand Prix with 6 wins out of 7 races as he went up against Damon Hill.
Hill had won his home race and Schumacher finished P2 but right after the race he was disqualified. This came after stewards had noticed the German driver overtake Hill on two occasions during the formation lap.
He was handed a stop-and-go penalty but Schumacher refused to serve that and continued with his race as if nothing had happened. Following that he was shown a black flag, and again the Benetton driver refused.
Benetton cited confusion as their reason for not following the rules but stewards were unconvinced and therefore handed the team a penalty of $25000.
Later, FIA’s World Motor Sport Council got involved and they slapped a fine of $500,000 and a 2 race ban on the German for his behaviour. Benetton however, appealed and Schumacher was later allowed to race.
Another disqualification for Schumacher
While it was one of the major disqualifications, it was not the only one that came in the way of Schumacher. He was handed under DSQ at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Schumacher had won the race by a lead of 13 seconds. But it was only after the race that stewards found excessive wear on the wooden skid block under his car.
Basically, the speed limitation device that was introduced after the death of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger did not meet the requirements of the FIA.
The device was meant to slow down the driver and since it was excessively worn off, it was ruled that it gave Schumacher an advantage over his rivals.
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