"I had a dream…" …but Michael Schumacher's vision of winning Ferrari their first drivers' title since 1979 took on nightmare proportions before it was finally realised It wasn't difficult for Michael Schumacher to accept Ferrari's offer - and it wasn't just about money. By mid-1995 he already knew that he was more than just another world champion. Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna were gone, and Damon Hill was never going to be a threat - not in the long term. A void surrounded him like no void has ever surrounded a driver so young in years and rich in talent. If he invested now, if he parlayed his Benetton success into something deeper, he could become the most successful grand prix driver of all time.

Application was what Ferrari lacked - application in the British Formula 1 sense of the word. A strict line of control. Less bureaucracy. More discipline. And latitude to be able to think on your feet. Ferrari often seemed to do things - to make race-strategic decisions - because that was the way they had always been made.

This was what Michael Schumacher talked about as the summer of '95 gave way to the autumn. Alone he was unsure of success, because winning world championships was about more than having the best driver. Everyone would be in it together - and it would be his people he would rely on, not Ferrari's incumbents. Buy Michael and you would be buying the people he already knew well - Brawn, Byrne and a couple of others beside.

Michael also reasoned that Ferrari also needed a meticulously - disciplined team manager - a briatore anti-figure who would do for precise detail what Flavio did backward-turned caps. Jean Todt, who had won rallies as a co-driver and Le Mans for Peugeot )and had joined Ferrari only a couple of years before) was one such. His greatest attribute, coming as he did from outside F1, was a mind yet to be filled. He would quickly immerse himself in the Schumacher-Brawn way of things.

For a team-mate Michael needed a driver who would never see a slot at Ferrari as a major step upwards and who would therefore accept number two status without question. Testing ability wasn't an issue: Michael would make the major decisions based on performance; reliability work, though, was within the scope of virtually every driver on the grid. Thus Eddie Irvine's name was mentioned. Ferrari balked; Michael was emphatic.

With all this agreed to, and with Brawn and Byrne behind him, Michael said yes. He would switch from Benetton to Ferrari - to the biggest name in motorsport. And he would show Ferrari, and the world, how to win.

It wasn't easy at first. Pieces would be made to pattern, but suddenly the standards would change. Crucial layers of film would be omitted from carbon bonds - because they had never been included before. In the early months, in the winter of '95 and some of '96, the business of the day was more administrative than it was directly competitive. It was catch up time and Williams-Renault, with drivers Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve, were pulling away from the rest.

If there was a pivotal moment for Michael and Ferrari, this was it. This was the time when others - Prost and Mansell in the recent past - had been unable to cope. Not with the pressures, as sure, but with the innuendo, with the half-finished sentences, with the looks and the glances from those who matter. It didn't affect their driving, but it affected the men they worked closet with. And, with their loss of confidence, the drivers, too, were made to suffer. Michael, cool and efficient, was perfectly placed to diffuse the flak. More than at any stage in his life, Michael Schumacher threw his heart and soul behind the work of the engineers he trusted. His loyalty was total.

And slowly the wins began to happen. It would rain, and Michael and Ross would second-guess the opposition. Then , in the dry, when the rest would be looking at two stops, Michael would look at three. It only needed to work once once or twice and suddenly the whole Ferrari garage was alight. Michael could see it their eyes as he pulled up to his pit marks. The team had fire. They were learning how to win. Too late for '96 championship, but well in time for '97, he could feel it coming together.

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