On 22 October 2006, Fernando Alonso beat Michael Schumacher to the world title in the Brazilian Grand Prix, as the seven-time champion retired from Formula 1.
In truth, there was little doubt Alonso was going to clinch a second crown that day. Schumacher’s engine failure and retirement from the lead of the Suzuka race had turned a potential two-point lead into a 10-point deficit, meaning the Ferrari racer needed both to win and his rival not to score at Interlagos.
That endeavour took a turn for the worse when Schumacher encountered a fuel pressure problem in Q3, leaving him 10th on the grid with Alonso fourth.
“I don't know what we can do,” the German said after qualifying. “I don't know how the race will develop. It is hard to predict something, but I will try my best. It is much more difficult starting from 10th, but of course I will try.”
“Let's not forget that in the past, Michael has managed to win races starting even further back on the grid,” Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn added.
That statement was inaccurate – across the preceding 248 races, Schumacher had won from outside the top 10 just once – but the Ferrari driver showed exactly why Brawn made it.
He jumped from 10th to seventh on the first lap, then passed former team-mate Rubens Barrichello and overtook Giancarlo Fisichella around the outside for fifth on lap eight – meaning he was already right behind his title rival – but the slightest of touches with the Renault caused a rear-left puncture.
Michael Schumacher, Ferrari
Photo by: Orlando Kissner / AFP via Getty Images
Schumacher found himself down in 20th, 69 seconds adrift of race-leading team-mate Felipe Massa, while his deficit to Alonso was exactly one minute. By lap 27, he had caught the back of the pack and successively overtook Tiago Monteiro, Robert Doornbos, Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica, while undercutting other opponents and benefitting from retirements, to find himself fifth before his second pitstop.
Emerging back out in seventh, Schumacher passed Barrichello again and pressured Fisichella into a lock-up in Turn 1 to claim fifth on lap 63. Massa’s commanding home drive meant he was still 33 seconds up the road, but second-placed Alonso was just eight seconds away from the recovering Ferrari.
Schumacher ran out of laps to claim a podium finish but still performed a clinical move on McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen on the antepenultimate lap to take fourth position, as Alonso secured the championship.
Fernando Alonso, Renault, Michael Schumacher, Ferrari
Photo by: Vanderlei Almeida/ AFP via Getty Images
“The race was chaotic, I think that is the right word,” Schumacher said. “We really had a superb car today, from the pure speed we could have lapped everybody. So I have to say it was the perfect end to the season in terms of car performance, but for me it didn't work out well.”
Alonso hailed a “fantastic way” to conclude his time at Renault, which he described as “my family in Formula 1”, ahead of his long-awaited move to McLaren for 2007.
“I will have these memories with them all my life, and to finish the last race like this is something that you never dream of, you never even try to dream of, because it's always more than what you expected,” he commented.
Fernando Alonso, Renault
Photo by: Charles Coates / LAT Images via Getty Images
With that career path, the Spaniard dreamt of emulating Ayrton Senna. “To join McLaren and never to race with Ferrari reminds me a lot of Senna,” he told TV channel Telecinco. “He won three titles, and for me, to retire with three and achieve what he achieved would be the objective of my career.” Twenty years on, Alonso is still chasing that third crown in F1.
Meanwhile, Schumacher looked back on his glittering career, one month after announcing his retirement in Monza.
With Ferrari signing Raikkonen for 2007, Schumacher staying would have come at the expense of youngster Massa, so he decided against it. But was there any chance he could return in the future?
“Formula 1 is constantly changing,” the 37-year-old responded. “The technology, the engines, the rules, the circuits. Once you're out of it, you're out.”
Michael Schumacher, Ferrari
Photo by: Orlando Kissner / AFP via Getty Images
In the end, the attraction of competition proved too strong and Schumacher returned for a three-year stint at Mercedes from 2010 to 2012, during which he struggled to match team-mate Nico Rosberg and scored just one podium finish while topping qualifying on his last Monaco outing.
But in the Schumacher camp, one major feeling when he first retired also was relief.
When asked by German network RTL what made her happy, his wife, Corinna Schumacher, replied: “That we're all going to go home healthy, that nothing happened in all these years and that we got away with just the one broken leg.”
Unfortunately, while the seven-time world champion emerged unscathed from his racing career, he was severely injured in a skiing accident in December 2013. Now 55 years old, he has not been seen in public since then.
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