Ralf Schumacher joins Mercedes as DTM Driver

Ralf in his new DTM car / Daimler

A new beginning for Ralf's racing career

By Thami Masemola
February 19, 2008 4:25 PM
Filed Under: German, Mercedes-Benz, Motorsport

Ralf Schumacher’s career as a top flight Formula One driver effectively ended this week, even though the announcement was made in 2007. Where he is going is no longer a secret, though few would have asked anyway. But for those who rate the man at all, he is joining Trilux AMG Mercedes, the DTM team of Daimler, to drive the C-Class for this season. He will be seen first behind the wheel on the 13th April at Hockenheim.

"Of course I know that neither the media nor the spectators consider me the greatest race driver of all times and this is not what I’m aiming for,” Ralf, not us, said at the announcement.

Having tested with the car already, covering over 2,000km, Ralf is now looking forward to a fresh new start in his new formula, having won 6 F1 races out of the 180 he started.

“It was great fun testing the DTM C-Class,” he commented, “and I look very much forward to the new season, more than I did for a long time. Money and popularity like in Formula 1 don’t play the first role for me. Now I want sport, fun and excitement and that’s what the DTM features more than any other race series.”

Norbert Haug, President of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport said in a statement: “Ralf will soon have a new image and I think that in his first year in the DTM this will not be based on his results but on his commitment to fight sportsmanlike, hard and fair with an extremely tough competition and thus to learn to improve to the top step by step. I admire Ralf for his commitment to compete which is what you experience only with a good and fully motivated sportsman. Neither did Ralf not ask us for a Formula 1 bonus in his salary nor did he require a special status within the team – compliments for this attitude: This is the only correct and therefore best pre-condition for his new career.”

Source: Daimler

Press Release (Click to expand)

After 11 years in the Formula 1 World Championship, Ralf Schumacher (32) will race this year with the Trilux AMG Mercedes C-Class in the DTM, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport announced today. Ralf Schumacher’s DTM debut will take place at the season opener in Hockenheim on 13th April 2008.

Ralf Schumacher tested the AMG Mercedes C-Class during four and a half test days in Estoril, Portugal for about 490 laps; which was more than 2,000 kilometres or approximately 12 DTM race distances. It was his first outing with an AMG Mercedes since 20th July 1997 when he was a guest driver in a race of the FIA GT Championship in Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium with an AMG Mercedes CLK-GTR. This was also Schumacher’s last opportunity to drive a race car with a roof.

At the age of three, Ralf Schumacher drove a kart for the first time. At the age of 16, he won his first title clinching the German Kart Junior Championship in 1991. One year later, he participated in his first ever car race – in the ADAC Formula Junior at Nuremberg’s Norisring. In 1995, he entered Formula 3 becoming runner-up in the German Championship and winning the Formula 3 Grand Prix in Macau. The following year, he won the Japanese Formula Nippon and was invited to his first Formula 1 test in Silverstone by McLaren Mercedes. In 1997, he made his Formula 1 debut with Jordan Peugeot.

From 1997 until 2007, Ralf participated in 180 Grands Prix, won six out of them and also started six times from pole position. He scored a total of 329 World Championship points. In 2001 and 2002, he finished the Drivers’ Championship with Williams BMW in fourth place respectively. At the Brazilian Grand Prix on 21st October 2007, he finished his Formula 1 career with Toyota. Behind his brother Michael, Ralf is the most successful German Formula 1 driver in the history of the championship since 1950.