Twenty-five years ago, on November 13, 1994 , Michael Schumacher touched the sky with his finger , graduating for the first time world champion, the first German to do so, in what would be the first of seven world championships of his career . At the Adelaide GP in Australia, the last act of a very tense and dramatic season that saw the deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger , the shy but tremendously determined young driver on the track, I finish with only one point ahead, 92 to 91, ahead at Damon Hillwho, after Senna’s death in Imola, benefit from the necessary modifications that Adrian Newey made to the complicated Williams FW16. The head to head between the German and the English son of art, which had continued not without “low blows” on the European tracks, finds its epilogue only at the last appointment in Adelaide , which reserves further emotions and controversies.
The wait at the beginning of the 1994 season was, however, completely polarized on the challenge between Schumacher and Senna, who had just moved to Williams. Right from the start you can see the fabric of the German who made the first insult to the Brazilian champion by going to win at his home, Interlagos, in the debut GP of the season. After the nefarious Grand Prix of Imola it was always Schumi’s monologue who dropped the poker two weeks later in the Monaco GP, the German’s first success in the Principality. We had to wait for the fifth race, in Spain, to have a winner other than Schumacher . In Catalonia Damon Hill won, while the German, who accuses his Benetton of gearbox problems, finished second.
From here another different season opens: at Silverstone, Schumacher was disqualified for an irregular maneuver and for not respecting the penalties imposed.: he was given two stop GPs, while on the home circuit, in Germany, his Benetton left him on foot, forcing him to retire for the first time of the season. Despite everything, in August, the German was 31 points ahead of the British in the world championship standings, but the problems for the driver born in Hurth do not end because he was again posthumously disqualified for irregularities in the bottom of his Benetton. The success was then awarded to Hill, who shortened the distance. Schumi was forced to attend the GPs of Italy and Portugal on television, together with his family and here Hill made a full booty: two successes that brought him back to -1 in the standings, in full race for the title .
Thus we arrive at November 13, in Australia the pole position and of Nigel Mansell, but Michael Schumacher, second in qualifying and also came out unscathed from a bad accident in Friday’s practice, and the fastest at the start taking immediately to the command, and in the first part of the race manages to stay in the lead doing a push and pull with Hill, keeping an advantage over the English around the second. On lap 36, however, the German makes a mistake by hitting a wall; after the collision he returns to the track while Damon Hill arrives who tries to overtake in the next right corner . Schumacher closes the trajectory, Hill is unable to avoid contact with the German who ends his race in the barriers, while the Englishman damages the car irreparably (by folding a suspension), making it impossible for him to proceed further, despite a desperate and useless pit stop.
This accident, which in some ways recalls the “physical” duels between Senna and Prost in the two-year period 1989-1990, arouses great controversy over Schumacher’s conduct, but the FIA classifies the accident as a normal race episode, not finding evidence of a intentionality of contact by the German. Schumacher, who had 1 point advantage at the start of the GP, keeps it thanks to this collision and wins his first world title, which in the post-race press conference he will dedicate to Ayrton Senna. The lead of the race was then taken by Nigel Mansell, the “Lion”, closely followed by Berger’s Ferrari, competitive in the race after difficult qualifying. In the pit stops the Austrian takes the lead, but a mistake a few corners from the end will grant the English Williams the last victory.
