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3: Schumacher's record-breaking year Posted: Monday December 23, 2002 11:57 AM
A great year for Michael Schumacher and Ferrari meant a miserable year for Formula One in general. The German confirmed his status as the finest driver of the modern era by claiming his fifth world title, matching the achievement of 1950s Argentine legend Juan Manual Fangio, and his third in a row. But that was only the tip of a superlative season for the 33-year-old. Schumacher won an unprecedented 11 of the season's 17 races, claiming the drivers' crown with six races to spare. His points total (144) was also a record, as was the margin of his triumph (67). And with 64 career wins, Schumacher has now won 13 more races than the next driver on the list, Alain Prost. When Schumacher didn't win, his teammate Rubens Barrichello usually did. The Brazilian scored four wins to help the Italian team win 15 of the season's Grand Prix, and finish 1-2 in 10 of them. But a lack of competition, both over the course of the season and during the dreary processions on the track, meant falling television audiences, a shortage of sponsorship and financial problems for many teams. Even at Ferrari's home Grand Prix in Italy the tifosi stayed away in droves, with just 60,000 turning up at Monza -- a 50 percent drop on last season -- to witness a wholly predictable 1-2 for the Prancing Horse. Ferrari hardly helped the sport's image by cynically using team orders to maximize Schumacher's championship lead at the Austrian Grand Prix, ordering Barrichello to pull over on the final bend to allow his team leader to score maximum points. With the championship won, Schumacher returned the favor at the U.S. Grand Prix. In October, the sport's ruling bodies decided on new rules in an effort to put the racing back into F1: a revised points system, a one-lap qualifying system and a ban on those controversial team orders are among the measures which F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone hopes will restore the sport's competitive edge, if not quite the wheel-banging, overtaking action remembered by nostalgists. "I promise there won't be another season like this," says Ecclestone. "Next year it's going to be a good show again." -- Simon Hooper
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