Ralf Schumacher always had to deal with the fact that for many, he is first of all Michael's little brother. No more. After 70 Grand Prix starts, the young German broke his duck, winning in style the San Marino Grand Prix. He enjoys this year the appreciation of professionals and fans alike, and seems set to continue to earn that. Roger Horton met with Ralf at the Austrian Grand Prix, and talked to him about his Championship chances, his fast-changing personal life and, yes, about Michael the brother

When Ralf Schumacher crossed the line to win the San Marino Grand Prix just over one month ago, his life was changed forever. Once a driver passes the ultimate test of winning a race, especially from the front in such a dominating fashion, he gets a key that few other drivers possess. He now knows what it takes to win; he understands how to juggle all the elements of his package together and make them deliver to him a winning hand.

Fittingly, it was his three-time World Champion brother Michael who was the first to congratulate him as he stepped from his car. It's a path his elder brother has, of course, trodden before. A rite of passage for a driver destined, perhaps, for bigger things. So many times before it had been Michael at centre stage, with Ralf in the shadows. Now for once it was the younger brother's turn.

Following his San Marino victory, his team boss Frank Williams - never an easy man to please - was happy to praise his young driver. "Ralf now has more focus," Williams told Atlas F1. "He gets more out of his car and he spends more time thinking about his car. He is more capable of driving a flawless race and he is fitter and more focused than he was."

And then it came again, the comparison that Ralf has been subjected to nearly all his racing life: his talent measured against Michael's. "I think he would always welcome the chance to directly race against his brother," Williams continued, "But that has always been a limited opportunity. Hopefully it will be a more frequent opportunity for him from now on. Michael is certainly more experienced and Ralf is still learning. But he is seven years younger than his brother and I think his day is coming."

Part of becoming more 'focused' entailed moving from one of the glamour capitals of the world - Monaco - to the quiet countryside of Austria. He now regards this Austrian event, along with Hockenheim, as his 'home race', and it was in the Williams motor home, with the Styrian Alps as an impressive backdrop, that we talked about his changing life, his season so far, the rivalry with his brother, and his prospects for the upcoming races.

"Well I grew up in the countryside in Germany," Ralf explains his latest move to Austria. "I always knew when I went to Monaco that it was very nice for a single person, but since I have decided to get married and have children I thought that Monaco was not the right place to live, and thought that Austria was a far nicer place to be."

Within days of scoring his debut win, Schumacher announced not only his forthcoming marriage to his long-time girlfriend Cora Brinkmann, but that she was four months pregnant as well. Hopefully these changes in his personal life will not interrupt his current level of commitment that his team boss currently finds so pleasing

Q: So has much changed since his Imola win?

"No, it has not changed my personal life at all. More people write about me, I guess, but as I don't read what they write it hasn't changed anything." Ralf, it should be remembered, is in the middle of a rather messy legal dispute regarding the ownership of some nude photographs of his future wife, and so currently his relationship with some sections of the media is somewhat strained.

The joy of that Imola victory was followed by something of a disaster at the next race in Spain, where Ralf spun out of the race when a locked rear wheel threw his BMW-Williams off the track. "The rear over braked, I locked the rear right wheel and I spun because of that", Ralf says in a matter-of-fact tone. "The brake balance was set too much to the rear and that's why the wheel locked. It was a stupid mistake but that's what happened."

I ventured that perhaps he was being too hard on himself; was it really all his own fault?

"Yes, I would consider that a driver mistake. It is down to me to change the brake balance, but it was very sudden the way it happened. Usually you feel the brakes locking a bit and you have time to change the balance, but the way it happened was very unusual, but then again it was my fault."

Clearly he doesn't feel the need to look for excuses, confident that his current form insulates him against any criticisms that might come his way. Going into the Austrian race Ralf had outqualified his much-touted teammate Juan Pablo Montoya five to zero, although the Colombian managed to turn the tables for the first time at the A1 Ring, although this was not something that seemed to concern Ralf at all.

"Well it's not really a problem, I mean the score is now five to one and it was very close today, and anyway this is not one of my favourite circuits." He then went on to express a common feeling amongst the drivers as to the challenge that this truncated circuit presents. "It's braking and accelerating for three corners, it does not need a lot of skill here, there are no real quick corners, so it's a bit boring. And besides that, it is very slippery. So it's not a track that you can compare with Suzuka or a circuit like that."

Ralf's path into F1 and his current position at Williams was neither very long, nor especially hard. The almost obligatory kart racing as a youngster, leading into two seasons of German F3 racing with his manager Willi Weber's WTS racing outfit. He finished third in the standings in 1994, when the title was won by his future Jordan teammate Giancarlo Fisichella, and one place higher the following year, beaten by Norberto Fontana.

The following year was spent contesting the Formula Nippon series in Japan with a Le Mans Co Lola, and he took the title at his first attempt. Then, after initially looking likely to spend the 1997 season as McLaren's test driver, a race seat was offered at Jordan, and so he followed in his elder brother's footsteps by making his race debut with Eddie Jordan's Silverstone-based team.

After two years it was time to move on, and he took the long-term decision to join the Williams team for the 1999 season on a four-year deal, betting correctly that in a few years' time it would be the place to be. He was then only twenty three years old, and could afford the time to wait for the team's rebirth as a winning outfit.

Now, with Williams rapidly becoming a race-winning team once again, Ralf is lining up more and more as a genuine competitor to the Ferrari Number One. So this begs the obvious question, is Michael just another driver once the lights go out?

"Yes, whenever we get together I think it's always a pretty tough fight. To be honest it is exciting to be in a position to race for a pole or maybe for a good racing position, it is nice to race against your brother, but it's not really everything."

Q: So once you are on the track, all bets are off?

"Basically yes, but he is always my brother and I will always be his brother and we know each other well, but he is fighting for himself and I am fighting for myself."

The most serious incident between the two occurred back in 1997 at the Luxembourg Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, where they were involved in a first corner coming together that severely set back Michael's Championship ambitions for that year. His Ferrari was damaged badly enough to see him retire from the race, whilst Ralf's Jordan was out on the spot. "It was a bad incident," Ralf admitted at the time. "My car jumped in the air, then I hit Michael. It was potentially quite dangerous, so I suppose we should be happy no-one was hurt - but the consequences were very bad for our team and for my brother."

The elder Schumacher stuck somewhat grimly - some thought - to the brotherly love line. "It is a shame", he said after the race, "But I am not blaming my brother. No-one is to blame. It was not deliberate. It was a racing accident."

At last year's Spanish race the two clashed once again, as Michael, his Ferrari crippled with a puncture, pushed Ralf wide through a corner and so allowed his Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello through to take Ralf's position. Although in public Ralf refused to criticise his brother's tactics, privately he was not impressed.

Despite his own growing reputation and the increasing competitiveness of his BMW-Williams-Michelin package, Ralf Schumacher continues to downplay his chances of winning races and mounting a serious Championship challenge this year. Speaking after qualifying, with the two Williamses second and third on the grid in Austria, wasn't he perhaps being a little too cautious in writing off his chances, I asked?

"I disagree that our Championship chances are realistic. From the factors we have on the car at the moment, especially with Michelin and the problems we have in the rain, we are not capable of winning a Championship yet. There might be another circuit, like Monza, where we are quickest again. Overall our performance is too up and down.

"The day when I am regularly first in qualifying I will stop downplaying my chances, because then it's realistic, but at the moment we are not, so it's realistic to do so. I mean, I know about my car, I know about my problems a bit more than you know, and that's for a good reason."

The race was to prove his caution half right. Both Williamses retired, but they had led the race in line astern before Montoya's Michelin tyres degraded enough to have him fall into the clutches of Michael's Ferrari. But as Ralf said after the race, it would have been interesting to see how things would have developed without their mechanical problems, as their Michelin tyres are known to recover their grip as more rubber is laid down on the track.

But putting Austria aside, 2001 will already be the year where Ralf Schumacher showed the world he is very much a future star of Formula One. Ralf's time in the shadows is now well and truly over.