Feature: Ralf Still has a Mountain to Climb

Ralf Schumacher stood on top of the podium at Imola a year ago and, drenched in champagne, celebrated his first Formula One victory.

It was a key moment, the sort of life-changing breakthrough for a driver that four times champion Alain Prost eloquently described in an autobiography.

"Winning your first Grand Prix is a passport to the future," the Frenchman wrote.

"Once you have won a Grand Prix, you are free from all the inhibitions and complexes that have held you back. You know that you are every bit as good as those around you, and Formula One takes on an entirely new aspect.

"You have climbed a mountain which, only the night before, appeared insurmountable."

Ralf has taken three more victories for Williams since April last year and is currently second in the Championship behind brother Michael after three races. On Sunday, he will be hot favourite to win the San Marino Grand Prix again.

But big brother, Ferrari's four times World Champion, represents a problem that the likes of Prost or Niki Lauda never had to contend with.

Ralf may be a multiple winner now but, with a sibling who ranks as the most successful driver of all time with 55 wins, he still has much to prove to fully emerge from the giant shadow cast by Michael. One mountain has been conquered, others remain.

Wheel-to-Wheel

Ralf is a winner who has yet to win over all the sceptics, some of whom question whether he has the stomach required to take on Michael in wheel to wheel combat.

The Williams driver was given a brusque lesson last season when he lined up alongside Michael at the Nurburgring only to find his brother giving him the choice of a collision or contact with the wall. Ralf braked.

The doubts resurfaced after the last Brazilian Grand Prix, when Ralf was runner up to Michael - closing steadily on the Ferrari but unable to get past.

"It's very early in the season and I didn't want to risk my six points," he said afterwards.

The words were seized on, Ralf's attitude compared unfavourably to his uncompromising Colombian teammate Juan Pablo Montoya who could never be accused of not wanting to have a go at the older German.

Italy's Gazzetta Dello Sport described Ralf as "the man capable of winning four races without ever pulling off an overtaking manoeuvre and whom some malicious voices inside Williams have nicknamed Ferrari's third driver".

Certainly, his first win at Imola was secured at the first corner, when he took the lead from poleman David Coulthard's McLaren and never looked back. He was also gifted the lead in Malaysia this season when Michael and Montoya collided at the first corner.

But there is no doubt that he is quick and team boss Frank Williams swiftly dismissed the media criticism.

"The difficulty is that last year Montoya passed Schumacher (at Interlagos) and everyone thought it could happen again," he said last week. "If Ralf could have overtaken Michael at the start then it would have been okay, but Michael was in front and the leader usually goes on to win in Brazil."

Michael agreed at Imola on Thursday: "The problem is that the people outside Formula One, who don't sit in a Formula One car, don't understand why it is simply not possible to get closer and overtake," he said.

"I would have been in exactly the same position most likely to Ralf and I wouldn't have had any chance to overtake. There is basically only one chance. I saw Ralf's sector times and he was giving it all. But it was just not enough."