Bernd Schneider

Schneider in 1988, whilst driving for Zakspeed

**Bernd Robert Schneider** (born 20 July 1964) is a German racing driver, currently driving for AMG-Mercedes in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft. He previously competed in Formula One for Zakspeed for two seasons in 1988 and 1989.

## Early racing career

Bernd finished third in the German Junior Kart Championship in 1976, at the age of twelve. After finishing second in that competition for the next two years, he won the German Junior Kart championship in 1979, as well as fifth in the World Junior Kart Championship.

By 1980, he had matured as a junior kartist, winning both the German and World Junior Kart titles. He progressed to senior kart racing, finishing third in Class A in the 1981 German series and winning the European Kart title in 1982. He followed that up the next year by becoming African Kart champion, before transitioning to car racing in 1984. Starting in German Formula Ford, Bernd was quickly on the pace, finishing second overall. Schneider moved up to German Formula 3 in 1986, after finishing fourth and fifth in the 1985 German and European Formula Ford 2000 championships, respectively. Again adapting quickly, he finished equal third with 94 points for the ACE team in a Reynard 863 Volkswagen, before joining the Schübel team in 1987. He then launched a blitzkrieg on the opposition, winning seven of eight rounds in his Dallara F387 Volkswagen and scoring 140 points to defeat Joachim Winkelhock, who had only 98.

## Formula One: Zakspeed (1988–1989)

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## Post Formula One career

Schneider probably didn't care because he was having great success elsewhere in 1990. He not only won the Porsche Cup, but also raced a Kremer Porsche 962CK6 in the World Sportscar Championship. Sharing the car with a slew of co-drivers, including Hideki Okada, Sarel van der Merwe, Steven Andskar, Jürgen Barth, and Tomas Lopez, he finished fifth at Silverstone and fourth in a shortened race in Montreal. With 3.5 points, he finished 25th overall. That was nothing compared to his performance in the Interseries championship, where he competed for Kremer in the same type of car. He competed in five of the seven rounds, winning pole position and the fastest lap of the race at each of the five tracks. Bernd won 9 of the 10 heats he competed in, finishing second in the other, and had 4 outright wins and 1 outright second place. With 97.5 points, he was the clear winner.

He finished 1990 by winning a non-championship race at Hockenheim, then repeated the feat in 1991. He joined the Joest team and defended his Interserie championship title with 8 more heat wins, 6 more outright wins, 4 more fastest laps, and 6 more poles in a Porsche 962C. However, with the same team in the same car, he had less success in the WSC, retiring from overheating at Le Mans with 'John Winter' and Henri Pescarolo, and coming third in Mexico with Winter to finish 23rd with 12 points. Joest also entered Schneider in a 962C for the IMSA championship in America, where he shared the car with Winter, Bob Wollek, Paolo Barilla, and Massimo Sigala. Despite not winning a race, Bernd finished third in the 12 Hours of Sebring with Wollek and Sigala, with a fourth and three sixths en route to ninth overall with 49 points. As if that wasn't enough, Schneider made his debut in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft in 1991, reuniting with Zakspeed to drive a Mercedes for them.

Michael Schumacher, the next brilliant young German after Schneider, debuted in Formula One in 1991. At Spa, where Eddie Jordan was giving the *Wunderkind* his first start, the Irishman casually asked journalists where they thought "Schneider" would qualify. Ironically, by this point, Bernd was well out of F1 and not looking back, though it is unclear why he would team up with Zakspeed, the same mob that ended his F1 career in one fell swoop. However, by 1992, Mercedes executives realised that in Schneider, they had discovered a driver who was equally adept in sports and touring cars as he was in single seaters, and the works AMG team hired him to race in the DTM. Bernd didn't disappoint them, finishing third overall. He also began the year with three more IMSA starts in a Joest Porsche 962C, sharing with drivers such as Winter, Sigala, Oscar Larrauri, and Frank Jelinski, finishing fourth in Miami with Larrauri and scoring 10 points, good for equal 29th in the series.