The day Schumacher “made everyone look silly”

There is a much-used cliche in motorsport that rain is "the great equaliser", giving drivers in inferior machinery the opportunity to fight with their better-equipped rivals. Other times, it can do more than just level the playing field, but result in virtuoso performances that transform perceptions of a driver and mark the start of things to come.

Wet-weather races had already brought out some of the best displays of Michael Schumacher's early F1 career, long before the moniker of "Regenmeister" had been bestowed upon him.

His maiden win had come in the rain-affected 1992 Belgian Grand Prix, when he finished almost 40 seconds clear of the field in a Benetton after timing his change back to slicks to perfection.

But the other leading driver of the mid-90s, Damon Hill, had also impressed in wet conditions, notably beating Schumacher in the rain-hit 1994 Japanese Grand Prix with one of the stand-out displays of his F1 career.

The pair had battled again at Spa in 1995 as Schumacher came from 16th on the grid to beat Hill in a wheel-to-wheel fight (pictured below). Hill had been left fuming by his rival's aggressive on-track moves, saying they were "not acceptable" at such speeds in the rain.

With question marks hanging over Schumacher's sportsmanship in their tussle, the jury was still out as to who was F1's wet-weather king.

But at the 1996 Spanish Grand Prix, which is being broadcast today by F1, the debate was settled in convincing fashion as Schumacher delivered one of the greatest wet-weather drives in F1 history, and, in the words of Hill himself, "made everyone look silly".

The balance of power in F1 had swung firmly away from Schumacher upon arrival at the Circuit de Catalunya at the end of May. Having left Benetton following back-to-back world titles to try and rebuild the ailing Ferrari team, Schumacher quickly found that a third straight championship would be hard to come by as Williams emerged with the dominant package that season.

The Ferrari F310 had caused headaches from pre-season testing, suffering from a severe lack of downforce. Hill won four of the opening five races - his streak only punctuated by new team-mate Jacques Villeneuve's maiden victory at the Nurburgring - and would have won the sixth round in Monaco had it not been for an engine failure.

Schumacher, meanwhile, had struggled to live with the pace of the Williams cars ahead. Two weeks prior to the race in Spain, he had crashed out in the wet on the opening lap at Monaco after starting from pole.

Schumacher eased into the distance, pulling out a mammoth five seconds per lap on Villeneuve at points

Schumacher's winless start to life with Ferrari looked set to continue in Spain as Williams swept the front row in qualifying, Hill ahead of Villeneuve. Schumacher was nine-tenths off the pace in third.

And then the rain came. Not just a little bit of rain, either. A deluge.

"I sat on pole position and looked down the very long straight that seemed more like an infinity pool at that precise moment," Hill wrote in his autobiography.

"It had been raining hard since the morning warm-up, and I was seriously concerned about conditions that were worse than they had been at any stage in the weekend.

"I looked across at Jacques, who was alongside me on the front row, and wondered what Schumacher, directly behind me, must be thinking. Surely we couldn't race in this?"

However, F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone made clear the race would be going ahead as planned: "Like a load of idiots, our keenness to race overcame our fears and we went back into 'race on' mode," Hill remembered.

Hill had opted against a full-wet set-up for his car, despite the conditions in warm-up, believing a dry line would emerge on-track if conditions eased. Schumacher and Ferrari had banked on the rain persisting and set-up his 310 accordingly in the hope that rolling the dice would yield a breakthrough victory.

But as the race started, Schumacher's chances took another big setback as he almost stalled on the line, dropping back as far as ninth as the cars behind picked their way past his scarlet red Ferrari in the spray.

Hill, meanwhile, was also struggling with the conditions as Villeneuve and Benetton's Jean Alesi passed him on the opening lap.

"Within seconds, we all realised racing in these conditions was total madness," Hill said. "It was far worse than Brazil at the start of the season. Thousands of gallons of rain-water must have been lifted off the road as we all slipped and aquaplaned towards Turn 1."

Schumacher had recovered to sixth by the end of the first lap, 6.2 seconds off leader Villeneuve. That became fifth on lap two as Ferrari team-mate Eddie Irvine went off, bogging his car down in the damp grass.

Hill then suffered the first of three spins while in pursuit of Alesi, dropping back to fifth and handing Schumacher another position. Finding grip where his rivals failed to, Schumacher picked off the Benettons of Gerhard Berger and Alesi to move up to second, before easing past Villeneuve to take the lead on lap 12 - setting a new fastest lap by 1.7 seconds in the process.

"He just flew by me," said Villeneuve.

With no cars ahead of him, Schumacher eased into the distance, pulling out a mammoth five seconds per lap on Villeneuve at points. By the time he pitted on lap 24, Schumacher was almost 40 seconds ahead of the field, allowing him to pit for a fresh set of tyres and a top up of fuel and still retain an advantage of over 20 seconds. Commentator Murray Walker joked Ferrari had time to also change the gearbox and the engine on Schumacher's car, such was his advantage.

Hill, meanwhile, had long retired from the race by this point after spinning into the pit wall exiting the final corner.

"Michael, meanwhile, was producing one of the greatest drives of all-time as he made everyone look silly in the torrential rain," he recalled.

Autosport called his performance "one of the great wet-weather drives in history, worthy of comparison with Ayrton Senna's performances at Estoril in 1985 or Donington in 1993"

Villeneuve had committed to a one-stop strategy, but had already lost his chance of negating the gap that Schumacher was building by saving a stop, such was the gulf to the leader.

Villeneuve was lapping in the 1m52-53s range nearing the end of his stint, while Schumacher - with more fuel on-board - was still in the 1m47-48s. By the time both had made a final visit to the pits, the gap at the front was over a minute.

With conditions remaining difficult and nursing an engine problem on his car, Schumacher saw no need to push through the closing stages of the race. After getting the undercut on Villeneuve to run second, Alesi was able to reduce the gap to Schumacher to a more respectable 45 seconds come the chequered flag, hurried on by the Williams barely-distinguishable in his rear-view mirrors through the spray.

The trio who stood upon the podium were the only ones on the lead lap. Just six cars made it home. Schumacher's rout was complete.

"I really didn't think I would win today," Schumacher conceded after the race. "This is really a great, great day because we deserved it and we merit this triumph because of all the work we have done together.

"Apart from the problem in the middle of the race when the engine was always cutting out on one or two cylinders, the car was very good in the wet. This confirms that we must work very hard to really understand what are the problems with the car.

"There is much to do but for the moment I take great pleasure from this victory which I would like to dedicate to the whole team."

It would be just the start of things to come for Schumacher and Ferrari. Autosport's headline proclaimed Schumacher to be "Ferrari's Miracle Man", calling his performance "one of the great wet-weather drives in history, worthy of comparison with Ayrton Senna's performances at Estoril in 1985 or Donington in 1993."

There was now no doubt as to who was F1's wet-weather specialist. Schumacher had made everyone look silly.

And the 'Regenmeister' was born.