Schumacher's Final Victory: the incredible story of the 2006 Chinese GP

The 2006 Chinese Grand Prix was round 16 of 18 that year, and the championship was going down to the wire. Reigning world champion Fernando Alonso was chasing his second title. He was still with Renault, the team that had helped him win his first title a year earlier. He won that first title in dominant style, partially by absolutely demolishing seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher. But Schumacher was back with a vengeance this year, and he was still with Ferrari. That combination had proven deadly in the early 00’s, resulting in five back-to-back titles for the pair. Over the course of the 2006 season, Alonso and Schumacher had split almost all the wins between them. Going into this race, they were separated by just two points in favor of Alonso. The situation over at the constructor’s championship was similar: Ferrari was leading Renault by just three points, courtesy of Schumacher’s teammate Felipe Massa. 

Standings before the race

Further back, McLaren was wondering how on earth they dropped from a title contender in 2005 to a midfield team in 2006. Kimi Raikkonen had yet to win a race and his teammate Juan Pablo Montoya was so done with F1 that he announced his departure midway through the season. He was replaced by Pedro de la Rosa. Jenson Button (Honda) was still riding high from being the only driver not in Ferrari or Renault to win a race that year. The second drivers at Renault and Ferrari - Giancarlo Fisichella and Felipe Massa respectively - were locked in a tight race for third in the championship, though they were way off of the championship leaders.

The track was absolutely drenched in rain by the time the race started. This was great news for Alonso, who stormed away from pole position, but not so much for Schumacher, whose Bridgestone tyres struggled to make sense of the wet weather conditions. Fisichella played rear gunner for Alonso, holding off an increasingly frustrated Kimi Raikkonen, who just could not seem to pass the Renault. It took him 14 laps to overtake Fisichella, by which time Alonso had built up a comfortable lead of 15 seconds. 

That lead however was disappearing rapidly. Kimi was unleashed, and he was absolutely determined to get that win. Him being stuck behind Fisichella for so long meant that his tyres were holding up a lot better than Alonso’s, who was now struggling to stay on the track properly. By lap 18, Kimi was within striking distance of Alonso. He geared up for the chance to get his first win of the season… but it just wasn’t meant to be. His engine quit on him with a throttle failure, and he had no other choice than to park his car by the side of the track.

The track meanwhile had started to dry up a little bit, which meant that finally the Bridgestone tyres on Schumacher’s Ferrari started to outperform their rivals on Michelin. By lap 14, he had overtaken the much slower Hondas for fourth place, which turned into third when Raikkonen retired. By lap 19, he had caught up to Fisichella. Alonso still had a lead of 25 seconds on both of them, but that gap was evaporating faster than the water on track.

Schumacher felt good on his tyres. So good in fact that he chose not to change them out when he made his pitstop. The track was approaching the point where slicks might be better than intermediates, and the Ferrari engineers decided to take a gamble on it and wait for the intermediate tyres to turn themselves into slicks. (This was during a period when the Ferrari strategists were actually competent and knew what they were doing). Alonso couldn’t take that risk though, and decided to change out his front tyres for fresh inters. Yes, only his front tyres. If you think that would make the car unbalanced, you would be correct. By lap 28, Fisichellahad caught up to Alonso and overtaken him for the lead, and two laps later Schumacher delegated him to third. Knowing that the Renault strategists weren’t as clever as the ones from Ferrari, Schumacher decided to lie in wait for his opportunity to overtake Fisichella. That opportunity came on lap 41: Fisichella came in for a pitstop to change all his tyres, and while he came out ahead of Schumacher, his tyres were too cold to really find any grip and Schumacher took the lead of the race with only 16 laps to go.

Schumacher battling Fisichella (left) and Alonso (right) for the lead of the race.

By this point, the gap between Schumacher and Alonso was a staggering 50 seconds. But if you think that Alonso was just going to take that lying down, then you have not seen angry Alonso before. He decided to switch to slick tyres relatively early, but was held back by a terribly slow pitstop of 19 seconds long. But changing to slicks turned out to be a stroke of genius. Much like Raikkonen and Schumacher earlier in the race, Alonso was now unleashed and felt the power soaring through him. He was lapping several seconds faster than Schumacher and was rampaging through the field.

That field meanwhile was having a fun little side adventure. Nick Heidfeld was having a very good race in fourth place as they entered the final stages. All he had to do was overtake the lapped cars of Christijan Albers and Takuma Sato. Heidfeld must have pissed off both those drivers though, because Albers forced him wide off the track, and Sato just straight up refused to let Heidfeld pass despite the blue flags. This allowed Jenson Button to showcase some of his cunning when he boxed Heidfeld in behind Sato. With Heidfeld stuck in place, Button drove past easily. Barrichello drove past less easily and actually managed to crash into Heidfeld, damaging his own front wing and turning Heidfeld’s Sauber into a 3.5 wheel car. Pedro de la Rosa thanked everyone for their service and overtook both of them as Heidfeld struggled to reach the finishline in one piece. Sato would afterwards get disqualified for his antics.

Back to the main event then. Fisichella had let Alonso past as a show of good teammate behavior. Schumacher was still in front, but Alonso was gaining fast. The 50 second lead had turned into 20 seconds, which turned into 10 seconds, which turned into just 4 seconds as they entered the final lap. Schumacher could see the mighty blue-and-yellow Renault approach in his rear-view mirrors. He was driving with all his might as the deafening roar of the V8 in that Renault became louder and louder. But as Schumacher rounded the final corner, he knew that he had grasped it. Alonso had closed the gap down to 3 seconds, but that was 3 seconds too much. Schumacher crossed the line in first place and with it took the lead of the championship.

But for Schumacher, it was a moment of epic glory. And it was a bittersweet one, because just a few weeks earlier, in front of the Tifosi at Monza, he had announced his retirement from F1 by the end of the season. Everyone present there in China knew they were witnessing something special, and they knew it would most likely be the last time anyone saw it. The race was Schumacher’s 91st victory, a record that would stand for 14 years until Lewis Hamilton broke it in 2020. And it would ultimately be Schumacher’s final victory in his long and legendary Formula 1 career.