Much has been made after the Hungarian Grand Prix of Michael Schumacher's new record of 12 wins in a single season. However, Schumacher set at least 11 major and minor records that weekend; he tied another, and he brought himself to the cusp of three more. So pervasive is Schumacher's ownership of the F1 record books that almost any time he racks up another statistic, he bests one of his own records and thereby sets a new one. He is even nearing the averages of the great Juan Manuel Fangio, which for almost 50 years have seemed unapproachable. Barry Kalb takes a tour through Schumacher's remarkable numbers

Michael Schumacher professes not to be interested in Formula One records, but statistics are a common method of judging a sports figure's career, and Schumacher's statistics are unlike anything seen before in motor racing history. A very few drivers have bested him here and there, but none has come close to his overall achievement. In some categories, his score is twice that of the second-place driver.

It doesn't matter if it's a straight-forward achievement, such as the number of race wins, or such obscure items as "hat tricks" and "grand slams" and number of laps led, or averages based on the number of races a driver has started: Schumacher is invariably among the top five, and more often than not he owns the record outright.

The fact that he is already number one is so many categories means that the most minimal achievement – an eighth-place finish, for example, yielding a single championship point – can give him a new record, simply because he is improving on his old one. At the Hungarian Grand Prix, he surpassed his own records for race wins, fastest laps, points scored, podium places, races led, laps led, hat tricks, average points per start and wins in a single season. He also beat a 52-year-old record of Alberto Ascari's by winning seven consecutive races in a single season, he tied Mika Hakkinen's record of nine fastest laps in a single season; he all but wrapped up a record seventh Drivers' Championship (beating himself) and a record fifth WDC in a row (which will beat his and Fangio's mark of four). And in scoring his 62nd pole, he continued his inexorable march up to and almost certainly beyond Ayrton Senna's long-standing record of 65.

Schumacher's simple numbers, such as his 82 championship wins (all of which are detailed in an adjoining table), are easily accessible. But his stampede through the record books has F1 fans and historians digging deeper into the world of statistical possibilities – and what they find is that Schumacher still comes out on or near the top.

Take the "hat trick." The term refers to a race in which a driver records pole, fastest lap and win. You probably didn't know people tallied such things, but some do, and Schumacher has now achieved the feat 20 times. The second-place driver is Jimmy Clark, whose score is a distant 11. And then there's the "grand slam," in which a driver scores pole, fastest lap, and not only wins but leads every single lap of the race. There are a number of grand slam figures on the Internet, and it's obviously a laborious item to research, but an initial search turned up at least one for Fangio, at least three for Clark, and at least four each for Ascari and Schumacher (including two this year in Australia and Hungary).

One of the more interesting F1 records is the number of consecutive wins. Interesting because until the last race in Hungary, Ascari has always been credited with the record, but his number has been given variously as either seven or nine. Here's the reason for the difference of opinion:

For the first 11 years of the modern World Championship, 1950-1960, the Indianapolis 500 counted towards the Championship. It was a nice gesture that made the "world" a bit larger than Europe, but very few Indy drivers or European Grand Prix drivers crossed the Atlantic in those years to take part in the others' races. One of the few who did was Alberto Ascari.

In 1952, he started at Indy in a Ferrari – and did not finish. He had skipped the Swiss Grand Prix that year, the first race of the European season, in order to qualify at Indianapolis; he returned after the 500 to win the remaining six European championship races of the season. That gave him six consecutive wins, and the first of his two consecutive WDCs.

He won the first race of the 1953 season, which made it seven in a row. The next race on the championship calendar was the Indy 500 - but this time, Ascari gave it a miss. He stayed in Europe, and won the next two races in a row before a fourth place in France broke his winning streak. Six in '52 and three in '53 ostensibly gave him nine wins in a row, but since he had set the precedent the year before by racing at Indy, and since he skipped Indy in '53 (and therefore failed to win it), some people have argued that that represents a break in his streak. Strictly speaking, the argument goes, he won only seven WDC races in a row.

That seems a bit pedantic, and at any rate, Ascari unquestionably won nine straight WDC starts in a row. Schumacher has now won seven straight during this remarkable 2004 season of his, and it would surprise nobody if he won the next two, or three, to tie or top Ascari's record.

The one place where Schumacher has always failed to reach the very top is in per-start averages. There, he has usually ranked between second and fourth, behind Fangio, Ascari and/or Clark. (The only other driver ahead of him in any major per-start category is Senna, and only in the category of poles per start.) Fangio is almost invariably in first place, and until recently, it seemed he would always remain there.

Since his domination of Formula One began in 2000, however, Schumacher's averages have been steadily increasing. He has passed Clark and Ascari in a number of categories, and this season he achieved what once seemed almost unachievable, by surpassing Fangio, in points per start. His top place holds up whether you calculate by the prevailing points system of the driver's time, or recalculate a driver's record according to today's 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 system.

Schumacher is heading for the top in yet another category, although it's a record of not much more than persistence: by the end of this season he will be in second place in the number of Championship starts, behind Riccardo Patrese. He could take even that record, but he'd have to race beyond the expiry of his current Ferrari contract, which runs through the end of the 2006 season.

What mountains are left for Schumacher to climb? He already passed Fangio's five World Championships last year. As mentioned, this year he has not only virtually wrapped up his seventh WDC, he will have won five in a row, beating Fangio's and his own four in a row. If he doesn't tie or beat Senna's poles record in the remaining five races of this season, he will certainly do so during next season. He could match or top that Ascari record of nine straight wins. There is little likelihood that he will come close to Nigel Mansell's record of 14 poles in a single season.

His own existing records are safe for the foreseeable future, and there is more to come from him. Assuming he hangs up his helmet after 2006, he could quite conceivably leave the sport with something like 100 wins, 75 poles, 80 fastest laps, 160 podiums and 1400 points to his credit. Some driver might come along one day and eclipse one or more of those records, but it's as certain as it can get in sports that nobody will beat them all.

Statistics are a cold picture of a sports figure's career, but at the end of the day, they do say a lot about who had the right stuff and who did not. It is difficult to look at Michael Schumacher's statistics and not shake one's head in awe at how sweepingly he has overshadowed his rivals.

Statistics: the Top Five

The tables below show the top five drivers in each category of Formula One Championship achievement, from the start of the modern World Drivers' Championship in 1950, and until after the 2004 Hungarian Grand Prix. The tables illustrate Michael Schumacher's dominating presence in the Formula One record books.

There are some surprises in the figures - Ayrton Senna ranks only 4th in poles per start, for example - along with some names from the distant past, such as Giuseppe Farina, the first World Champion (in 1950), who still ranks among the leading drivers in podiums per start and points per start.

The statistics do not include non-Championship races, which were a regular feature of the motor racing calendar at least into the 1970s.

New points show a driver's record calculated according to the current points system - 10 points for a win, and 8-6-5-4-3-2-1 for 2nd through 8th place.

The history of championship points is as follows: