Race and classic pictures

Look back: Schumacher's first Ferrari title

It was on this day in 2000 that Michael Schumacher clinched the first of what would ultimately be five consecutive world championships with Ferrari. Schumacher has already been twice crowned champion while at Benetton, but this was his first title with the Scuderia.

Schumacher started the year with three back-to-back wins but suffered a strong of retirements during the middle part of the season, putting him under threat from the McLaren pairing of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard. However he finished the season with a run of four consecutive victories, including the final race at Interlagos, which secured him victory in the world title battle and also secured Ferrari the constructors championship.

Here's Schumacher celebrating on the podium with the team's technical director Ross Brawn and his team mate Rubens Barrichello. As for the red wigs - probably better not to ask. Fortunately it didn't catch on when it came to Ferrari's subsequent titles!

By coincidence, it was exactly six years later on October 22, 2006 that Schumacher marked his final race with Ferrari after deciding it was time to retire from Formula One. The team gave him a big send-off after the season finale in Brazil, with Schumacher's team mate that year Felipe Massa, team principal Jean Todt and Ross Brawn joining in the celebrations. Schumacher would return to active racing with Mercedes in 2010 where he was once again reunited with Brawn.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.