O brother, where aren't thou? When your brother is the world's greatest driver, escaping his shadow and making a name for yourself can be a tall task, but Williams star Ralf Schumacher is up to the challenge - The "Other" Brother - race car driver

Auto Racing Digest, June-July, 2002 by Dan Knutson

A LOT HAS HAPPENED TO RALF Schumacher over the past year. He got married, welcomed a new son into the world, and moved from Monaco to a country home in Austria. Oh, and he also won his first Grand Prix. And his second and his third. But while he was doing all that, his famous brother, Michael, was winning yet another Formula One World Championship, the fourth of his career.

As anybody who grew up with a famous sibling or parent knows, having a legendary surname is both a blessing and a curse. By the time Raft Schumacher competed in his first Grand Prix in 1997, his brother, who started F1 at the end of the 1991 season, had already won two World Championships.

As drivers such as Jacques Villeneuve and Damon Hill also discovered, a famous name only gets you so far. Sooner or later it's talent that keeps a driver in demand. There's no doubt that Ralf is not as quick as Michael, whom many consider to be the best driver in the world, but Ralf has matured over the past couple of seasons and last year--when he finally had a competitive car--he convincingly won the San Marino Grand Prix, leading from start to finish in his Williams BMW.

The victory was historic. It marked the first time in F1's modern era that two brothers won a Grand Prix in the same season. Michael was the first to congratulate Ralf. "He said, `well done' and it was time," says Ralf. "He told me that I had waited long enough and he was happy for me."

Earlier in 2001, in Brazil, the Schumachers also made history by becoming the first pair of brothers to qualify on the front row for a Grand Prix. The last time the Schumachers had started a race on the front row together had been in a go-kart event some 10 years earlier. On that day, Michael ended up ramming the back of Ralf's go-kart and ripping off its exhaust pipe.

These days in F1 they say they race hard but fair. "He will always be my brother," says Ralf. "But racing against each other is, if anything, more difficult than anything else. We've even touched, but we only crashed once--a long time ago, but that was a race incident. I will obviously try to maintain my position to overtake him, but if it doesn't make sense, I would pull back' as I would in any other situation."

Indeed, the two had some close calls in 2001, such as at the moment in the European Grand Prix when Michael sharply cut across Ralfs bows in order to protect his lead at the start of the race or when they went wheel-to-wheel in the opening lap of the Italian Grand Prix.

Could they, would they, ever be team-mates? "why not?" says Ralf. "I'd have no problem with that. It might be one day, but I doubt it."

Ralf was so competitive in the early part of the 2001 season that team owner Frank Williams signed him through 2004 to a deal reportedly worth more than $10 million a year.

Another pivotal moment in Ralf's life last year was the introduction of his new teammate: former Indy 500 winner and CART champion Juan Pablo Montoya. Each is very independent and a fierce competitor. Fireworks and clashes on and off the track were expected, yet the two got along well by agreeing not to get along. "I must say that Juan and myself have a very good professional relationship, although we don't like each other privately," says Raft. "We don't have the best relationship off the track, but we are professional enough to know that it takes two cars and two drivers to develop this project and reach our goal: winning the championship."

Montoya agrees: "We're just different personalities," he says. "We don't have anything in common. We work together and it's just like it is at any office: If you don't like some guy, you just have to get on with it and work with him. If we don't work well together we're going to hurt ourselves. We do have to work together as teammates, and we do that."

The current driver pawing at Williams BMW is a perfect match for the team's co-owners, Frank Williams and Patrick Head. Each prefer drivers who don't need any coddling in order to get on with the job of driving fast and winning races. "There are 22 drivers on the grid, and we have two of the ones that aim to win," says Williams of his drivers. "They are competitive individuals--they wouldn't be employed by this team if they weren't. They get on just fine, to many people's disappointment, but that's the reality of it."

Toward the end of 2001, as Montoya came to grips with F1, the momentum swung his way. It's true that Ralf won three times compared to Montoya's single victory, yet Ralfs performances tailed off at the end of the year. "We had good races and we had bad races," admits Ralf. "The last three weren't brilliant, but that is not my main problem at the moment because there is nothing that I can do to change that. The focus is only on this season."

The personalities of the Williams BMW drivers couldn't be more different, either. Germany's Ralf is an introvert while Columbia's Montoya is an extrovert. Montoya deals with setbacks by flashing his brilliant smile; Raft can get surly. "Everybody has to be unhappy sometimes, especially if things don't work they way one would hope," says Ralf. "Whenever it doesn't work and I know that I am the reason, I just hate it That's why I get angry sometimes. I am always much more angry about my mistakes than I would be with, say, an engine failure."