Can Schumacher pass 100 wins in 2010?

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Schumacher needs nine more wins to reach his hundredth

Michael Schumacher’s career statistics must make daunting reading for his rivals. He’s already racked up more than 100 fastest laps and over 150 podium finishes.

And if his Mercedes is up to the task, this year he could surpass 100 F1 career wins, something which has never been done before.

Wins

Most race wins (click to enlarge)

Of all his achievements, Schumacher’s massive tally of 91 race wins is perhaps his most impressive.

If he wins half the races on this year’s calendar – which he’s done before – he’ll become the first driver ever to record 100 race victories. Add another two to that and he would have twice as many race wins as any other F1 driver ever.

As with all these records, Schumacher’s ability to do that is largely down to how competitive the Mercedes turns out to be.

Fernando Alonso needs one more win to tie with Damon Hill as F1’s tenth most prolific winner. A couple of years ago he looked a likely candidate to scale Schumacher’s mammoth tally, but two largely win-less years at Renault have delayed his pursuit of his 2006 championship rival.

Most race wins (percentage) (click to enlarge)

With 91 wins from 249 starts, Schumacher has won more than a third of all the races he’s started. Only four drivers have done better, and two of those are drivers who only appear in the list because the Indianapolis 500 used to count towards the world championship.

Which driver competing today is closest to Schumacher’s mark? Lewis Hamilton, who’s won 21.15% of the races he’s started.

*Indianapolis 500 only

Podiums

Most podiums (click to enlarge)

Schumacher has more wins than any other driver has podiums barring Alain Prost, so it’s no surprise to see him comfortably on top of this list.

Most podiums (percentage) (click to enlarge)

As impressive as Schumacher’s record is, Juan Manuel Fangio’s strike rate of podiums is exceptional considering how much less reliable F1 cars were in the 1950s.

Of the current drivers once again it’s Hamilton who gets closest to Schumacher’s record. But the McLaren driver would have to finish in the top three for the first 14 races in a row to beat Schumacher’s hit rate.

Dorino Serafini finished second in the 1950 Italian Grand Prix, the only race he started.

Pole positions

Most pole positions (click to enlarge)

When it comes to pole positions Schumacher’s margin of superiority is not as great. He scored three more pole positions than Ayrton Senna but started 87 more races – so he doesn’t fare as well when we take a look at the drivers’ strike rate for pole positions:

Most pole positions (percentage) (click to enlarge)

Of course Senna set all his pole positions during the days of classic ‘low fuel’ qualifying, but Schumacher experienced race-fuel qualifying from 2003-2006. This year we’re back to ‘low-fuel’ qualifying.

Fastest laps

Most fastest laps (click to enlarge)

Schumacher’s fearsome race pace means he has almost twice as many fastest laps as any other driver, and will hit that mark if he manages another six this year.

Kimi Raikkonen was making inroads on Schumacher’s tally. But he won’t be racking up further fastest laps any time soon as he’s gone to race the stopwatch full-time in the World Rally Championship.

The active driver with the highest tally of fastest laps in Rubens Barrichello, who has 17.

Most fastest laps (percentage) (click to enlarge)

Japanese driver Masahiro Hasemi tops this list after his one-off start in the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix where he was credited with fastest lap.

Read more: Michael Schumacher F1 career statistics

Schumacher’s records

Looking at statistics like these makes you wonder what Schumacher feels he has left to achieve in F1. They may seem impossible to reach but when you consider the success drivers like Hamilton and Alonso have achieved already, with potentially another decade or more in the top flight ahead of them, perhaps one day they will reach the marks Schumacher has set.

But before then, let’s see if the seven-times world champion has it in him to push them a bit higher.

What are you expecting to see from Schumacher this year? Have you say in the comments.

2010 F1 season

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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83 comments on “Can Schumacher pass 100 wins in 2010?”

  1. I don’t think Schumacher will pass 100 wins in 2010 unless the Mercedes is the class of the field for most of the season, which I don’t think will happen. If he sees out his three year contract with Mercedes and they remain fairly competitive during that period I think Schumacher will most likely retire with 100 wins though.

    Although records are there to be broken I doubt that Schumacher’s F1 records will be broken as I just don’t see one driver being able to dominate F1 like he did for so many years.

    1. F1 has only been around for 60 years, unless it goes away, there will be another driver to break his record. We will be around for the 100 win barrier though, so that will be cool.

      1. Agree with PJA don’t really see any driver winning 9 times this year. Suspect no one will get to 6.

        Shuey could do it in two years, an providing Merc stay competative he’ll definatley do it in three.

    2. I hope another driver doesnt dominate like that. Not because I’m a Schumi fan, (I am FAR from that), but just because the sport will die if they have another dominating period of one car and one driver.

      On a personal note, I was ecstatic when Schumi did not win the 2006 WDC, and retired a not so happy driver. This time around, I know his target for the 3 seasons is to win at least one WDC and probably a 100 races. I look forward to him achieving none of those.

      I cannot see him matching the likes of Vettel, Hamilton and Alonso.

  2. I’ve always found the most-wins list rather peaceful with 51 for Prost, 41 for Senna and 31 for Mansell. And with Schumacher on 91, that peacefulness continued.

    Another 9 Grand Prix victories this season alone seems a bit far-fetched for the Germans, I reckon, especially since most pundits agree that Red Bull and Ferrari appear to be a wee bit quicker than Mercedes and McLaren.

    However, nothing’s impossible, and Schumacher’s done some incredible things before. So, to quote Tony Dodgins, “he’ll probably win the championship”.

    1. Robert McKay
      2nd March 2010, 15:57

      Maybe he’ll stop on 101.

      Seriously doubt he’ll win that many races this season, but if he does the three year contract he has with Merc then I would fancy his chances of breaking the ton barrier.

  3. He’ll get 100 by the end of the three years, and prob add agood few to that tally.

    These stats really show how exceptional he is, to win over a third of races is crazy. Senna too, 40% poles, awesome.

    Also suggest Hamilton’s youthful career is in the same league as these guys, despite over half of one of his 3 seasons being in a dog.

    1. ‘Also suggest Hamilton’s youthful career is in the same league as these guys, despite over half of one of his 3 seasons being in a dog’. (Platine)

      And Lewis has not yet enjoyed having the best car on the grid – let alone the ‘class of the field’ – as many of those other greats did, at times, over the course of their much longer careers. Moreover, into his fourth season of F1, Lewis has now been paired with two world champions, both of whom were the champ in the previous season to their being paired with Lewis; in the case of Alonso, it was actually the previous two seasons; and Alonso was paired with Lewis in Lewis’s first season!

      PS. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think that Schumi ever won a race in the wet by over a full minute. (I believe that only Senna and Lewis have achieved this, in the last twenty-odd-years of F1.)

      1. As far as I know you’re right about the full minute, although he has been close more than once and could conceivably have pulled out such a gap in the ’98 Belgian GP. Also according to Christopher Hilton “up to the end of the 2003 season, Schumacher won 17 of the 30 races in wet conditions he contested”, which is pretty impressive.

      2. Well, in fact Hamilton had a very competitive car for almost all of his career, except for early 2009 races…

        On the other hand, other great divers had several years with midfield teams (Senna at Toleman ’84 and Lotus ’85-’87, Schumacher at Benneton ’92) or big teams in bad yeats (Senna at McLaren ’92, Schumacher at Ferrari ’96 and ’05) to name a few…

        I think Hamilton is well poised to break many records because, along with his expectional talent, he’s been very lucky to debut at a top team and stay there for many years…

        1. I agree, out of the current drivers he has the best chance of surpassing Schumacher’s sporting achievements.

      3. Look up a chap named John Young Stewart.
        And, stop your jingoistic shyte about that plank Hamilton.

        The ‘he’s all right mate’ crap is starting to get on my nerves.

        All you Euro types are so into the latest failure from your particular country.

        A true F1 fan loves a pilote due to his class.

        andy

        1. Yeah I think the point being made is that he is exceptionally talented.

  4. Well, he has a contract with Mercedes for 3 seasons though. If that car performs like the Brawn BGP001 and sweep victories easily, he would easily surpass 100 race wins. Anyhow, I wouldn’t want to see that happen and I definitely hope not he will be WC again. Had enough of him, just be back for good and have some publicity for the sport that would be nice and of course without the cheating style. Sorry if you’re a Schumi fan don’t take it harsh, I was once, not anymore until I’ve heard of the great Ayrton Senna.

  5. Ned Flanders
    2nd March 2010, 16:06

    91 wins… wow. When you actually stop and think about that stat it seems so impressive. But the chances that Schumi (or any other driver for that matter) will notch up 9 wins this season are miniscule, so I don’t think he’ll be reaching 100 wins any time soon.

    In fact, with the talk coming out of Mercedes right now I think it’s way more likely that Schumacher will win 0 races this season than 9

  6. Ned Flanders
    2nd March 2010, 16:09

    Does anyone else hate how these obscure Indy 500 drivers from the 50’s always pop up in these ‘best of’ lists? And can any fans of US racing tell me if any of these drivers were actually any good?

    1. Yes, statistics have their limits, don’t they? Then again, perhaps we should be more annoyed about the Indy 500 not being included in the championship anymore – now that would be an interesting challenge for F1 drivers and engineers. It would be pretty cool to have a once a year meet on a platform where F1 and Indy drivers could compete.

      1. Ned Flanders
        2nd March 2010, 17:36

        Yeah, I’d like that. I don’t want too many F1 races on ovals but 1 or 2 would make for a nice novelty. The problem is this an era of cost cutting, and making all the technichal requirements for F1 cars to race on ovals would be expensive.

        Keith, if it hasn’t already been done could you run a poll asking fans whether they’d like to see F1 race on ovals? I know we’re all sick of hearing about improving ‘the show’, but I do think it would be an entertaining novelty!

        1. I’m pro-oval too (with regards to a single race for F1) but the safety standards would need to improve, just ask Ralf Schumacher.

        2. I did a piece on F1 racing on ovals last year, actually: Why F1 should race on ovals

        3. i think that running F1 cars in Indy 500 against Indy drivers would boost F1 image in USA after years of exile. Yeah, in an era of cost cutting it may not be feasible, but how about a non-championship race with McLarens and Ferraris (i mention only those teams who’d be the most interested in this kind of project) against the American heroes?

    2. Do you remember Mario Andretti?

  7. why are most of the drivers listed in the graphs from the last 20-30 years?

    1. Due to the number of drivers who died in the past. Tragic but that simple. Drivers very seldom had the oppertunity to race for many years.
      On the subject of 100 wins I do not think he will get to this total. As one of his biggest fans and who appreciates all he has done I can’t see him winning 9 races in 2 years and that is the maximun I think he will do. He was the best but even superhero’s have to stop some time.

      1. Ned Flanders
        2nd March 2010, 17:00

        I think there’s more to it than that. There have been way more races per season in recent decades than there were back in the 50’s and 60’s. Also, more and more drivers reach F1 at a relatively young age these days, and therefore they have longer careers

        1. cheers guys!

        2. Fully agree with the number of races and ages but you also have to lok at the drivers who made WDC and then died while still racing. On a very personal note drivers a far too young now. F1 should be achieved when drivers are in their mid to late 20’s after 8 years or so of quality racing in the lower formulas.

          1. Ned Flanders
            2nd March 2010, 18:17

            I don’t think it’s so much that they are too young; age itself isn’t a problem, you get teenage athletes in all professional sports, so why not F1? But I agree that some drivers are being forced into F1 too early before they have enough experience.

            Esteban Tuero is an example- he was a talented driver but he was thrown into F1 before he was ready for it and his career was ruined while he was barely into his twenties. The same thing could happen to Alguersairi- he’s clearly got talent but he is 3 or 4 years away from being ready for F1, why rush him through so soon?

          2. and grosjean’s career is runied now surely?

        3. Very true…. but look at Fangio and he didn’t even start in F1 until he was older than Schumacher is now!

  8. Robert McKay
    2nd March 2010, 16:13

    The best thing for everyone, apart from maybe Schumacher himself, is we have a living, breathing benchmark of excellence for everyone else to aim for.

  9. I think he would need two seasons to get 10 wins bringing him to 101. I cant see him winning anymore than 3 races this season.

  10. His first win with Mercedes is in itself a record 92 wins (Senna + Prost). There’s no doubt Schumi will surely cross the Magical figure of 100.

    On going through the records please note: Alonso nowhere to be seen. Yes, Lewis is there.

    1. Well he’s on the podium chart and he’s only just outside the top ten on one of two others.

      Most wins: 11th (21)
      Most wins %: 18th (15.1)
      Most podiums: 10th (53)
      Most podiums %: 22nd (38.1)
      Most pole positions: =11th (18)
      Most pole positions %: 31st (12.9)
      Most fastest laps: =19th (13)
      Most fastest laps %: 37th (9.3)

      Plus, of course, he’s had one year in a Minardi and last year was pretty much wasted too.

      If the F10’s up to scratch I reckon he’ll be top ten for most of these by the end of the year.

  11. If he gets even one more win, my comemorative “last win” die cast model will be worthless.

    1. You best flog it quick, then.

      I seriously doubt he’ll rack up 9 victories in 2010 alone. I hope he doesn’t, anyway, else that’ll make for a rather dull year.

      Like others have said, and I agree, I think he’ll reach 100 providing he sees out his 3 year Mercedes contract, and the car is somewhat competative. 3 wins per year is easily do-able, I feel, especially if the field remains as close as it’s threatening to be.

  12. Like most of the above posters, I don’t think he can get 9 wins in one season. But in 3? Sure.

    I don’t think anyone will get close to 9 wins this season. In fact, if anyone gets more than 5 wins, I’ll be surprised. If the racing is as close as the testing looks then I’d expect 7-9 different winners this season.

  13. I dont think this season but by the end of his 3 year contract… it will be done.

  14. He’ll definately win races this year. But it’s just too competitive this year, I don’t see anyone with a real margin over anyone. It’s arguably the most competitive and closely matched F1 World Championship that Schumacher has ever raced in, in his entire career? I can’t imagine the 2010 World Champion will win more than 5 or 6 races in the course of the season given how competitive it is…

  15. May be in 3 years. Not in 2010 alone.

  16. No Michael won’t, I think Fernando Alonso will reach the 30 barrier in this season. Perhaps he’ll even equal Mansell’s 31 in Korea. :)

  17. Schumi’s contract is not for 3 years as has been repeatedly stated. It is for one year with an option for two more. Conceivably if he had a bad year or started to suffer again with old injuries, he might pull out after a season and never reach 100 wins. But if he wins a couple of races in 2010 and carries on for 2011 and 2012, he certainly could get to 100.

    1. Ned Flanders
      2nd March 2010, 18:10

      Surely it would hurt his pride too much to slink out of F1 after a failed one year come back. I think no matter how good or bad 2010 goes for Schumacher he’ll be back again in 2011 and 2012. He loves racing too much!

      In fact, I think the question is: will he stay on beyond 2012? He hinted a while ago that he might, health permitting. In the US drivers often seem to race well into their 40’s and 50’s, and if anyone can replicate that in F1 it’d be Schumi

  18. i think Rosberg will be faster from Schumacher

    1. Anyone else? I suspect this might be a minority opinion!

  19. While Schumacher’s tally is mightily impressive and there is no denying it, I can’t help but wonder what these comparisons would look like if two drivers in particular (Clark & Senna) were to have had full careers in the sport, and then if factor in the reliability issues of the earlier F1 cars on top of that… such a shame!

    1. I agree. One fact that always sticks out for me in particular:

      Even though Schumacher had 5 more years in the sport than Senna, he only managed to beat Senna’s record of 65 pole positions by a mere 3.

      1. This clearly shows Schumacher’s superiority over Senna as he can drag a second rate car that is not the fastest in qualifying and win races in it doing consistent qualifying-like race laps as evident in the fastest race lap statistics.

        Senna and Prost were opportunistic and wanted to race for the fastest team always with no loyalty except to themselves only.

        Whereas Schumacher (Ferrari) and Hill (Arrow) worked out their socks off to lift entire teams up from the ground and into winning races. Money may have been the motive but this still has negative bearing on their statistics.

        Schumacher loves odd numbers so he will be happy with 99 race wins :)

        I would give him advice to love prime numbers and go for 97 this year and 103 next year while in 2012 there may not be even a civilized world to speak of let alone Formula1 :)

  20. Schumacher can win 9 races this season the question is can Mercedes?

  21. Wow these stats are impressive. I’m in utter awe at the moment.
    Of course there is always the argument that stats don’t always tell the full story; seasons used to be a lot shorter, drivers who could have had more quite often died as it is only recently safety has been much improved, Schumacher never really had as much opposition as past drivers but that isn’t to say I don’t rate Schumahcer above all the other drivers njust it is a point to consider when looking at his stats. He also took quite a while to help build Ferrari back up. However, even though this is all true it’s a massive achievement for Schumacher and if (big if here) he races for three years then he is likely to get it but I sincerely doubt he will this year.
    Of the current crop of talent I think Alonso will come closest to Schumacher. Hamilton is good but it’s those drivers who tend to be clever and apply their talent more that usually come out on top and which is why I think Schumacher, Prost, Stewart, Clark, Lauda, Fangio, Piquet and even Ascari make up the bulk of the charts.

  22. Well said K, but that’s what the debate is, is the Mercedes team and car capable of that kind of dominance?
    Without a compliant number 2 driver?

    I can’t see it, maybe 4 wins would be tops in my book.

    1. It’s a long season this year, even if one team isn’t dominant now (before the season has even started) it could still end up that way. The fact that the season is long and the top teams seem closely matched would lead me guess that McLaren will win owing to their prodigious capacity to develop a car. BUT as a wise man once said:

      “If is F1 spelt backwards”

      and

      “Anything can happen in F1 and it usually does”

      ;)

      1. K, Mercedes may choose to supply McLaren some doggy engines for the final quarter of the season :)

  23. winning 50% of the races this year? i don’t think so. however, he’ll likely do it around mid-2011, when there should be an american grand prix :)

  24. I think Schumacher will quit F1 before the session finish. That why Nick Heidfeld was taken as test driver to replace him.

    1. I think heidfeld will not replace to schumacher’s seat. He is no longer fit to the races of f1, like badoer.

      1. Hang on, you’re comparing Heidfeld to Badoer? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I seem to remember Heidfeld being able to keep up with the rest of the field last year. And the BMW was barely better than the Ferrari at that point.

        1. Heidfeld’s only one plus is stableness. thats why Heidfeld no more find a race seat in any f1 teams on this season.

          1. What about overtaking?

  25. In 2010 no but in 2010-2013 yes I think so, just imagine if he only gets to 99 on his last year?

  26. No way he wins 9 races this year. He will be lucky to win 1-2. Ferrari, Mac and RBR will dominate. Nice to see Kimi 3rd in number of fastest laps, only behind Michael and Prost. Confirms the speed theory on the Iceman. What a shame he won’t be in this year’s championship. It would be the ultimate all-star driver cast in F1.

  27. theRoswellite
    2nd March 2010, 21:33

    As previously mentioned, Mr. Schumacher has those huge numbers by which he is justifiably honored; however, as Invoke comments, there are important considerations which must be acknowledged when attempting to judge drivers over different eras.

    Obviously, the most important factor when looking at wins is probably the number of races the driver participated in, and as Roger Smith examined in his excellent book, Analysing Formula 1 (sic), the best way to view this variable is to simply look at the percentage of wins the driver had.

    When you do this you find that Fangio had a significant performance edge over Michael. He also had an edge in percentage of fastest laps, podium finishes, pole positions and championship years. Fangio won championships in four different makes of cars to Schumacher’s two, perhaps a meaningless statistic or perhaps one that reflects on a driver’s versatility.

    These comments aren’t meant to reflect negatively on Michael, many of my other posts speak to that subject, they are just meant to point out that by most objective measurements Mr. Schumacher is not our greatest Grand Prix driver. (In fact Mr. Smith has him as number three behind Fangio and Clark)

    1. This says Schumacher can develop a car in one season (1996) and start winning the very next year whereas those with most poles may mean they were opportunistic and wanted to race for the fastest team always with no loyalty jumping teams each year.

      Have you thought of that?

    2. Umar Farooq Khawaja
      3rd March 2010, 1:07

      Some drivers, had very short careers, such as Senna. M. Schumacher has had a very long career. His long career is part of what makes him great. He has provided peak performance for a very long period of time. If you think about it, that in itself, much more than purely his winning stats are what make him great.

      Longevity isn’t easy. If you doubt that, compare Federer with Nadal in Tennis. The great ones perform at their peak for long periods of time.

      From this perspective, percentage of wins doesn’t mean much.

  28. sorry I should have said earlier, excellent stats agian Keith. Keep it up

  29. Impressive records, he did have a long carreer already though. He won’t make it to 100 this year, I think the competition is too strong for that.

  30. Ahh but once upon a time there was another swiss/italian/german…

    Between 1922 and 1939 Rudolph Caracciola won 149 races.
    Ok the first was actually a race for motorcycles and maybe it was not called Formula 1 yet (Bernie was not yet in charge). But the races were called Grand Prix.

    In 1939 he avoided the nazi regime by settling in Swiss. That ended his career.

    1. Peter, don’t let Schumacher know this or he won’t be able to sleep for another 10 years until he beats that too :)

      1. He will now by now, because Caracciola was a Mercedes GP team driver.

  31. Kieth, does Schumacher’s stats exclude the 1997 season?
    If yes, what would it be with the 1997?
    Thanks

    1. No, they don’t. He was DSQed from the 1997 standings, but none of his wins or poles or FLaps were taken away.

      1. Journeyer is (as he always is with stats like this) dead right.

  32. He’ll reach 100 in the 2012 German Grand Prix.

    Hey, if Sidney Crosby can score the winning goal for Canada to win gold at the Olympics, fairytale victories can be expected, right? ;-)

    Seriously though, I expect it would take him three years to do so. I’ll be surprised if anyone wins more than 4 this year.

  33. In a word: no.

    Schumi needs 9 wins to pull it off. With him probably not having the fastest car, and with 4 winnable teams, a title-winning campaign will probably just get him 7 wins at most. If he doesn’t win the title this year, he’ll probably get 3-4 wins.

  34. If he stays in F1 for three years then he will achieved 100 race victories, & may be his eight title.

  35. dont worry about 100 wins. M.S wants 10 wdc’s

  36. i dont think he can reach 100 victory even in 3 years because this isnt the time that he used to dominate with better car&without competition&cheatin all the time without punishement cause hes FIA’s favourite that time has past

  37. I think he can take 100th Schumacher victory in F1. This happens if he wins three races, which would give him 94, while Ralf has six.

  38. i think if he stays in f1 for 3 years he will definately surpass 100 victories & he will win 1 more championship

  39. I would be surprised if he gets 100 wins this year but I suspect it may be a reason for him to continue until he does, even though I’m sure he would never admit it…

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