After 11 years in the Formula 1 World Championship, Ralf Schumacher (32) will race this year with the Trilux AMG Mercedes C-Class in the DTM, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport announced today. Ralf Schumacher’s DTM debut will take place at the season opener in Hockenheim on 13th April 2008.
Ralf Schumacher tested the AMG Mercedes C-Class during four and a half test days in Estoril, Portugal for about 490 laps; which was more than 2,000 kilometres or approximately 12 DTM race distances. It was his first outing with an AMG Mercedes since 20th July 1997 when he was a guest driver in a race of the FIA GT Championship in Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium with an AMG Mercedes CLK-GTR. This was also Schumacher’s last opportunity to drive a race car with a roof.
At the age of three, Ralf Schumacher drove a kart for the first time. At the age of 16, he won his first title clinching the German Kart Junior Championship in 1991. One year later, he participated in his first ever car race – in the ADAC Formula Junior at Nuremberg’s Norisring. In 1995, he entered Formula 3 becoming runner-up in the German Championship and winning the Formula 3 Grand Prix in Macau. The following year, he won the Japanese Formula Nippon and was invited to his first Formula 1 test in Silverstone by McLaren Mercedes. In 1997, he made his Formula 1 debut with Jordan Peugeot.
From 1997 until 2007, Ralf participated in 180 Grands Prix, won six out of them and also started six times from pole position. He scored a total of 329 World Championship points. In 2001 and 2002, he finished the Drivers’ Championship with Williams BMW in fourth place respectively. At the Brazilian Grand Prix on 21st October 2007, he finished his Formula 1 career with Toyota. Behind his brother Michael, Ralf is the most successful German Formula 1 driver in the history of the championship since 1950.
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