The fastest man in the world's fastest sport

OK, sports fans, who is the highest-salaried sportsman in the world? Tiger Woods? Shaquille O'Neal? Or a square-jawed German wearing a big grin and a bright red jumpsuit of whom you have probably never heard?

You guessed it. Michael Schumacher, the race-car driver who won his record sixth Formula One World Championship on Sunday, may pass almost unrecognized in the United States. But elsewhere in the world, he is one of the best known faces in sport, commanding a reported $40 million annual fee from Ferrari, the team he leads.

As the undisputed king of the $4 billion, 16-country F-1 circuit, dominating the world's most expensive, most dangerous, and often most dramatic sport, "Schumi," as he is popularly known, elicits strong reactions: fans either love him or hate him.

But they cannot argue with his record.

"Michael Schumacher is plainly the outstanding talent of his period," says Doug Nye, an English historian of motor racing. "He is undoubtedly the best racing driver in harness, pound for pound, and he has been for too many years."

Mr. Schumacher won his first World Championship in 1994, driving for the Benetton team. This year's triumph means he has now won the title four years in a row for Ferrari, driving in the Italian luxury carmaker's instantly recognizable scarlet colors.

He holds almost all the records there are to hold in Formula One, but one statistic is especially telling of his consistent success: since he began F-1 racing 12 years ago, he has finished outside the point- scoring top eight in only three of the 150 races he has completed.

Last year he had already won the championship by July: he was so far ahead of his rivals that none could catch him even with six races left in the season.

This year, to maintain suspense, the International Automobile Federation, which governs F-1 racing, changed the rules and points system, narrowing the difference between first and second place. Schumacher still won, though only two points ahead of Finnish driver Kimi Räikkönen.

Racing is a habit the 34-year-old driver has had since he was a toddler, entering his first go-cart race at the age of five. Since then, he has done little else.

He won his first shot at a prized Formula One drive with the Jordan team, which unexpectedly found itself short of a driver just before the Spa Grand Prix in Belgium in 1991. Schumacher convinced owner Eddie Jordan that he was familiar with the course, which was not entirely true. Early in the morning he borrowed a bicycle and rode around the circuit to familiarize himself with its curves.

That determination, however, has sometimes spilled over into an unsporting relentlessness that has alienated many fans. In 1994, he won the title by one point, after colliding with runner-up Damon Hill, and in 1997 he was stripped of all his points when he tried to force Jacques Villeneuve off the track in the title-deciding race.

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