Michael Schumacher stands at an extraordinary point in the history of moto racing – he can become the most successful Grand Prix driver of all time, setting records which may last for generations. Not even Juan-Manuel Fangio’s total of five World Championships is safe.

This completely new, detailed study recreates how it has all happened, using original sources and first-hand interviews, before exploring the ultimate – and controversial - question of whether Schumacher is indeed the greatest Formula 1 driver ever. It is a question, which can no longer be avoided.

In the first ten years of his Grand Prix career, Michael Schumacher has become so dominant that only two significant records – most pole positions and most World Championships – remain to be broken. Both are at his mercy.

This all new book is a critical examination of his career, exploring through interviews with team principals, drivers, mechanics and others who were there, how the dominance began and grew, and what it means now in terms of the whole history of the sport.

Christopher Hilton recreates significant races – with never-before-revealed insights into Schumacher’s astonishing debut at Spa in 1991 from which everything followed. He examines Schumacher’s rare ability in qualifying, comparing that directly with Ayrton Senna, dissects Schumacher’s pole positions and sets out essential facts of every one of his victories up to the end of the triumphant 2001 season. Ferrari insiders reveal some surprising views about their star driver.

The book begs the biggest question: is Schumacher really the greatest of all?

Using known facts and thoughtful extrapolations, Hilton compares him with other Grand Prix greats, and two of those greats – Sir Stirling Moss and Sir Jackie Stewart – offer candid opinions on the man and his racing in the light of that question.

The penetrating text is accompanied by an intimate, revealing and dramatic portfolio of photographs by Rainer Schlegelmilch, the leading German F1 photographer who has followed Schumacher from the very beginning in Grands Prix.

Hardback 160 pages