Ralf Schumacher is possibly one of the more complex drivers in Formula One today: he has shown flares of brilliance, winning Williams's only Grand Prix this year; yet he has also shown weaknesses aplenty. There's little to envy him for: he is forever in his famous brother's shadow, he drives alongside one of the most promising stars of recent years, and his team bosses have little time or empathy for tortured souls. Jane Nottage monitored Ralf's weekends in France and Germany, talked to the men who work with him and offers a look into the ambiguities that make up Ralf's highs and lows

What a difference a year makes. At 1:31pm on June 30th 2001, the day of his 26th birthday, Ralf Schumacher claimed his first pole position in Formula One, beating his brother Michael by just one hundredth of a second - a hair's breath in anyone's language. And yet, what followed was the most significant event so far in his racing career.

At 1:32pm, manager Willi Weber, the man who has nurtured both Schumacher brothers to varying degrees of worldwide success, crossed from his usual position in the Ferrari garage, where he watches World Champion Michael, to the BMW Williams garage. There he stayed for the rest of the qualifying session. It was the tangible declaration of young Ralf as the official heir apparent to the World Championship crown.

Even though Ralf had won his first race two and a half months earlier at Imola, he had done so without having beaten his brother, who had retired from the race. It was at Montreal, when Ralf recorded his second Grand Prix victory, that he beat his brother fair and square. When Ralf achieved a third win at his home Grand Prix in Hockenheim, it looked like the young buck would be the natural successor to his brother, who was at that time already on course to winning his fourth World Championship.

Halfway through last season, people were already talking about the resurgence and maturity of Ralf, how he would be a contender for the World Championship in 2002. But then it all went slightly wrong. At the end of the season Ralf did not - as expected - finish the 2001 World Championship in second place behind his brother, he finished in 4th place on 49 points, seven behind Rubens Barrichello and sixteen behind David Coulthard, who finished in the coveted second place.

Oh well, the pundits said, there was always 2002, he is bound to be a Championship contender for 2002 (and in fact, at least one of the leading magazines went on a limb to even predict he will be the winner for this year's title). But come this year, and once again in mid season, the same pattern emerges: starts strong but falls back half way.

From the Monaco Grand Prix until last weekend's German Grand Prix, Ralf has been trounced in qualifying by his teammate, the effervescent Juan Pablo Montoya, who recorded five consecutive pole positions while Ralf qualified on average on the fourth place of the grid. And, although the World Championship points are almost similar - Montoya is now second in the Championship with 40 points and Ralf third with 36 - the pendulum has definitely been swinging towards Montoya, and Willi Weber is by now firmly back to hanging out in the Ferrari motorhome and garage.

In and Out of Michael's Shadows

It would be easy to dismiss Ralf as simply not having the talent of his multi-Championship winning brother Michael, but that would be too simplistic. For one, when he entered Formula One in 1997, big brother had already won two World Championships and was number one driver for the mythical Ferrari team. Ralf was destined to be placed in his brother's shadow, always losing in the comparison, from the outset - a pressure that other drivers don't have to deal with.

Like in most sibling relationships, there is a whirling cauldron of barely suppressed emotions, ranging from love to hate that jostle for position in the minds of the two brothers. Michael is fiercely protective of his little brother - he was instrumental in getting him out of his contract with Jordan in 1998 so he could join Williams in 1999 - and he is often the first to criticise Ralf's teammates when they seem to be getting the better of him, as he did with Montoya last year.

At the same time, Ralf tries to maintain his independence and will buck against Big Brother. When Ralf started racing in karts, it was often Michael who acted as his mechanic but again it was a love-hate relationship. "When he suggested going a certain way in set-up, I would choose the opposite way," Ralf recalled. "I was very stubborn."

Intensely shy and awkward in a world where you need the personality of a poker player, Ralf looks at times as though he still needs Michael to act as protector. At Hockenheim last week, he cut a slightly forlorn figure, standing at the door of the drivers' briefing room on a Friday afternoon, waiting for Michael to arrive, before the two go in and sit together.

"In terms of opening doors it is an advantage having the name Schumacher, as everyone is curious to know if the younger brother is as quick as the older one," Ralf admits, though quickly adds: "but it is more difficult to keep the doors open as you are judged against Michael. And for the other drivers it is always a pleasure to beat a Schumacher."

So far, it's been easier to beat the younger Schumacher than the elder one. And occasionally the elder Schumacher has dropped the brotherly love in favour of outright competition.

Ralf stormed out of Nurburgring last year - after Michael executed on him his famous chop, at the start of the European Grand Prix - stating: "I would rather not say what I think of my brother's driving style right now." When he had calmed down, this changed to: "I would probably have done the same thing in his position."

In his younger years, he was often accused of being hasty, to which he retorts: "As a driver, it is quite obvious you always believe in your abilities and always believe you can do the job. Looking back four or five years, I think I did a reasonable job but obviously I had to learn a lot. I made a lot of silly mistakes as well, but to be fair a lot of them were misquoted a lot of times.

"Looking back at my time at Jordan, when I spun quite a few times, eighty per cent of those spins were because something on the geometry broke, or whatever, a wishbone or a track rod broke away. But I have learnt my lessons and am more relaxed."

More relaxed? Gerhard Berger has his views on that. "Ralf has his plus and minuses, he is a very strong driver, he can win races, and he uses his head," he told Atlas F1 in Germany. "But he has his ups and downs, and I think we need to give him support so the downs disappear."

Berger is a strong ally of Ralf, but he has a very different personality. "I needed the downs in my career when I was driving to motivate me," Berger says of the difference between them. "If it had been ups all the time then I would have been on the beach all day!"

Ralf, Berger admits, is more complex, and that isn't something you should indulge in when you drive for WilliamsF1. Frank Williams and Patrick Head are uncompromising men, and as Head himself declared: "We don't do hugs and kisses at Williams. The drivers have to stand on their own two feet."

The Enemy Within

Last year at mid season Head declared himself happy with the change in Ralf. "He seems more relaxed this year, so he contributes more to team morale and atmosphere within the team. You can share a joke with him much more easily than [in 2000]." And this year?

Montoya's five pole positions and confident attitude have rattled Ralf in the last couple of months. As Berger says, "Montoya is a team player, he's Latin, and warm, open and nice and sometimes that creates friction and an atmosphere with Ralf. Also, Montoya is supremely confident, and at the moment Juan is the superstar and that makes him strong and confident."

Berger thinks that Ralf should balance his downs by understanding himself and discovering why it happens. If he does that, Berger says, "he can be a World Champion, there is no doubt about that."

So what are these downs that he has to balance? What makes Ralf go from the confident, relaxed man at the beginning of the season to the sometimes tortured, mistrustful man at the end of it?

One of the reasons seems to be the fact that he is not entirely at ease with the requirements of being a celebrity - especially a Schumacher one. "I think what people don't realize is that the life of the Schumachers - both Michael and Ralf - is a soap opera," Head told Atlas F1. "I think Ralf finds the press extremely intrusive and he's learnt to be quite closed. Juan doesn't find it a problem, and he's learnt to deal with it in a way that doesn't cause him to close up as much as Ralf does."

But even Head admits that Ralf often makes the mistake of trying to follow his older brother's footsteps, when at the same time he is a completely different person than Michael.

Just before he came into Formula One, and when talking about his brother's life, Ralf said: "I'd like a wife like Corinna. If she had a sister my life would be settled." His attempts thereafter to emulate his brother's picture perfect, of a happy-family-in-the-countryside, have not been so successful.

In the winter of 2000 he took the decision to uproot from Monaco, a place he didn't like, and head to the beauty and wide open spaces of Austria. In Australia last year, he showed up with Cora Brinkmann, and barely two months later he already announced the couple are expecting a baby and getting married. Seemingly, he was emulating the required ingredients in the Schumacher formula for stability. In reality, though, his team members report he is still struggling to achieve equilibrium, and his happiness in his private life is directly related to his racing success.

In France two weeks ago, the difference between Ralf and Montoya couldn't have been more tangible. The Colombian and Connie, his fiancee, appeared at the annual Michelin party and mixed happily with everyone. They stayed for over an hour, with Montoya enjoying the delights of the French buffet. Ralf was nowhere in sight.

The next day, Montoya was to be seen posing for photographs with fans outside the Ferrari motorhome. In the background, Ralf was spotted rushing by, his head down, hoping to escape from the madding crowd to the safety of his garage. And, as Montoya regularly wanders about the paddock with his friends, Ralf sticks to the BMW motorhome.

But Montoya's influence hasn't been all negative. His application to the job has also served a sharp kick up the backside of young Schumacher. Williams's Chief Operations Engineer, Sam Michael - who was Ralf's Race Engineer at Jordan and became Ralf's closest friend at the team - is convinced that Ralf will shine through.

"I think he's been strong this year and he's definitely more applied, as Juan gave him such a hard time," the 32-year-old Australian told Atlas F1. "We have two drivers who are pushing themselves and both living up to what they need to do. But they both need to go to a different level if they are to win a World Championship. It comes down to motivating people, and making sure that when they are in the pitlane and driving the car they give good, clear directions from the cockpit, which Ralf does well.

"Contrary to what you might think, Ralf is actually a lot friendlier this year, mixes in with the team and has a good sense of humour. But it would be good if he - and Montoya - contributed to the team in the way that Michael does: sit in on meetings and keep the team focussed on what they need. Either way, though, they are both capable of winning World Championships, and that's good for the team."

It's Not Easy Being Him

Sam Michael thinks that Ralf's shyness could be down to the restrictions caused by working with a multi-national company. "I read a Tom Cruise interview the other day," he says, "and he was just talking about what he felt about everything. A driver could never do that, as he always has to remember that he represents the team and the sponsors and technical partners."

Head too offers sympathy to Ralf's position - as a celebrity who isn't really enjoying the attention. "I don't think Ralf has an attitude problem," he says, "but I'm not sure I would like to be in his place. Well, if I was good enough I would have liked to be a Grand Prix driver, but I wouldn't like to be signing autographs all the time and feel that 'grab, grab, grab. You belong to us' side of it. That's horrific, I think, and I don't envy him."

Still, publicity and fame is part and parcel of the sport, and many other drivers - including the older Schumacher - have come to terms with handling it. Ralf hasn't, but the question remains if it's affecting his performance.

"No," Head retorts. "I think Ralf is fine. I mean, obviously he's had five times in a row where he's been outqualified by Juan, but our car has been in the last five races tough on its tyres, which often means we can get a good qualifying lap on a new set of tyres out of it, but by the time it's on the fifth lap of the tyres, they have degraded quite heavily.

"When Ralf is running on race tyres in long runs, he's just as quick as Juan - he just seems to have, this year and recently, a difficulty getting the best out of a new set of tyres. But he'll sort that out."

Frank Williams doesn't seem to give Ralf as much slack as his partner Head does, though. "We'd like him to be quicker so you could say we're concerned," Williams said recently. "Some days he's brilliant, some days he can't put his hand on the button that makes the car perfect. I'd say he's in a bit of a dip at the moment. It's obvious that he is under pressure from Juan Pablo but that will spur him on."

Ralf himself was taken by surprise when told of Williams's words. "He said that?" he asked on Friday at Hockenheim, taken aback. But then he reflects on the words a moment longer, before replying: "I suppose it's fair to say that Juan has had the better qualifying for the last five races, as he's done a better job with the tyres and the team together. But I doubt that will be the same for the rest of the season."

Sure enough, it wasn't. Ralf outqualified Montoya at Hockenheim, and for most part of the race drove well ahead of his Colombian teammate, only to finish behind him due to an unscheduled pitstop, needed to correct variables on his engine.

According to Eddie Jordan - former boss to Ralf and not necessarily a close friend to either of the Schumachers - the only problem with Ralf lies in the car. "For me Ralf Schumacher has always been a terrific driver and I have seen no fall-off in his form or commitment," he told Atlas F1 earlier this week.

"In the last race he was at the front of the grid and was unlucky in his big battle with Michael and if he hadn't had problems he would have had a much better finish. I don't think the reasons for his inconsistencies are to do with his driving, and people should look more carefully at the machinery he is using rather than anything else."

Be that as it may, the German Grand Prix weekend served as a temporary tranquilizer for both Ralf and his paddock critics. How long this ceasefire will last, though, remains to be seen.