Ralf Schumacher net worth in 2023 Career & Relationship

Estimated value:	€110 million
Age:	46
Born:	06/30/1975
Country of origin:	Germany
Source of Wealth:	former Formula 1 driver, now an entrepreneur
Last updated:	2021

Short introduction

Ralf Schuhmacher was a Formula 1 racing driver until 2007 and then a DTM driver until he ended his active career as a driver in 2013. Today he works as an entrepreneur and Formula 1 expert on television.

early life

Ralf Schuhmacher was born on June 30, 1975 in Hürth near Cologne and grew up in the neighboring community of Kerpen. He is the younger brother of 7-times Formula 1 world champion Michael Schuhmacher and son of Rolf Schuhmacher, who worked at the now famous kart track in Kerpen.

Career

Ralf did his first laps in a kart in Kerpen as a 3-year-old, following in the footsteps of his older brother Michaels, who was already very successful in the junior classes. Ralf wanted to do the same as his big brother and in 1989 he won his first title as German Junior Kart Champion.

In the following three years he made it to the Gold Cup, the NRW Cup and the Junior Kart Championship. In 1992 he switched to Formula Junior, a racing category for single-seat, open-top racing cars. The following year he was runner-up in the ADAC Formula Junior and then received a contract for Formula 3, all under the watchful eye of his manager at the time, Willi Weber.

There he achieved his first victory in Formula 3 with his team WTS and achieved third place in the overall standings at the end of the season. The following year he was even able to improve his position in the final standings and climbed to second place, the vice championship. With this success, Ralf Schuhmacher could have switched to the European Formula 3000, but on the advice of Willi Weber he drove in the Japanese Formula Nippon, where he won the championship title against Norberto Fontana in the last race of the 1996 season. This success opened the doors to Formula 1 for the young talent. Nothing stood in the way of a contract with Eddie Jordan’s racing team (Jordan F1) and so he made his debut in 1997 in the premier class of motorsport.

Career highlights

Already in his first year in Formula 1, Ralf Schuhmacher showed a strong will and made it to his first podium in the third race of the season in Argentina. In the end, Schuhmacher took 13 points and Jordan F1 finished fifth in the Constructors’ Championship. The following year there was an engine change at Jordan F1. The Peugeot engines were dispensed with and the Mugen-Honda drive units were used. Schumacher scored 14 points, enough for 10th place at the end of the season, and his racing team finished 4th overall.

But there was a crisis in the team and so the change to Williams F1 came in 1999. A year later Williams F1 became the BMW works team and there was a career boost for Ralf Schuhmacher. It was at Imola in 2001 that he clinched his first Formula 1 victory, followed by victories at Montreal and Hockenheim in the same season. Together with his team colleague Juan Pablo Montoya, Schumacher was celebrated by the international press as the best driver team that year.

A year later he drove to victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix and finished fourth overall at the end of the season, the same as the year before. In the 2003 season, Schumacher celebrated victories at the European Grand Prix and the French Grand Prix. In the following season, Ralf then had a serious accident at the Grand Prix in the USA and had to take a break for several months. He only drove the last four races of the year.

Although Ralf Schuhmacher improved financially when he switched to the Toyota team in 2005, his stage with the Cologne-based team was rather mediocre in terms of sport. The F1 driver, who started out with title hopes, only achieved sixth place in the overall rankings and the following year tenth place. His contract was not renewed in 2007.

Ralf Schuhmacher celebrated 6 Formula 1 victories and scored 329 Grand Prix points. From 2008 he drove in the DTM before retiring as an active driver five years later.

Famous quotes

“Even if I’m bitterly disappointing some now: I’m just as little gay as the Danube is an island.”
“All the village gossip gets on my nerves. I’ve had enough, I want to leave.”
“It wears out my sense of humor when I’m questioned about my brother. I’m Ralf Schumacher and I don’t define myself through my family.”
“I’m a modern man and I change diapers at night too.”
“At home little David screams, here the engines roar. Don’t ask which is louder. . .”

tips for success

“Three wins so far are nice, but not great yet. What counts is not the individual victory, but the world championship title.”

Estimated value:	€110 million