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He remains to this day one of the most successful drivers in Formula 1 history, whose on-track successes inspired generations of young racers. But Michael Schumacher is remembered by those who worked with him for far more than just his achievements behind the wheel.

The German wasn't always liked by his rivals for the way he raced, but he was adored by his colleagues in the garage and factory. And while his name is synonymous with Ferrari, given their extraordinary run of five consecutive championship wins in the early 2000s, which has yet to be matched, it should not be forgotten that his first two titles came while he drove for Benetton.

Someone who could never forget is a man whose family name was given to the team. Alessandro Benetton spent a decade as chairman of the team, starting in 1988 when the outfit was still establishing itself on the grid and overseeing its rise from pretender to contender.

Benetton peaked in the mid-1990s when Schumacher, who was poached away from Eddie Jordan after an eye-catching debut, won back-to-back drivers' titles in 1994 and '95. The constructors' championship was also won in the latter year.

"There is a lot of pride on this side," Benetton told Express Sport with a smile. He loves that his family's legacy in F1 is intertwined with that of one of motorsport's greatest ever champions.

"The Italian added: "We gave him complete faith when, of course, it was clear that he was an incredible talent, but nobody knew how far he could have gone later on. I have great memories about those years with Michael."

Schumacher's competitive streak was legendary, and it sometimes led him to go too far on the track. But it also saw him chase every single marginal gain possible from it and, while that placed a lot of pressure on his engineers, mechanics and other colleagues, they were happy to step up - because they saw their driver putting in the same effort.

Benetton recalled: "From day one, he appeared to me as being a very mature individual, very serious, very responsible, very demanding, but, first of all, very demanding of himself. He could have the right to have very high expectations of the overall team, of all the members in all functions, because he was the first one to put in that type of commitment.

"That was an incredible time. Of course, we should not forget that other things happen, unfortunate things like Imola '94. But, yeah, he really gave a very important contribution. We knew at that time, '94, that we did not have an engine that was powerful enough, but we knew that we could react faster and take advantage of all the gimmicks and all the dynamic changes that you can make when you are a bit smaller."

The impact he had on his colleagues was vital because F1 has always been a team sport, despite results ultimately resting on one driver behind the wheel. And Schumacher certainly didn't do it alone, as he needed celebrated minds like Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne to help build a title-winning car.

Putting together that whole package was something that Benetton still uses in his business dealings to this day. He said: "That's one of the major lessons for me in my life, at the end of the day. You need to have a driver, you need to have the engine, you need to have the chassis, you need to have team spirit, you need to have the engineers and the aerodynamics guys - you need to have everybody. You win if you have a team.

"It's been one of the most important lessons for me in life, even if I was very young and I got into a business that I didn't know. One of the more important efforts that I had to do was to make sure that these people would get along, because they were all very strong personalities, and they all wanted to have their own light, and they all wanted to have their own way.

"Sometimes it was very important that I, as a leader or as a chairman or as an owner of a team, put most of my energy into trying to work out what people had in common rather than creating further distance, given their distant points of view sometimes, and that has been very important. The other element is that we all had good people, and the reason why we had good people is that we grew together.

"If you think about the history of the team, we started ourselves, and then there was Peter Collins, who was a great guy, and there was Rory Byrne. We had John Barnard for a short period of time, but he made a contribution as well. And then we had a very important person who was Tom Walkinshaw, who in turn brought in Ross Brawn and the overall technical [team].

"What was good about our story is that we built that team by adding pieces, and the dynamic approach - the team was built with a step-by-step approach. We were moving and adding pieces and improving the overall group on a continuous basis."