would later graduate to Formula One and achieve title-winning success in other championships. Bernd Schneider (1987) and Joachim Winkelhock (1988) went on to make F1 appearances and became champions at the highest levels of touring car racing. 1985 champion Volker Weidler also competed in F1 and won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1991. However, the 1990 champion was arguably the most notable of them all: Michael Schumacher. Four years before winning the first of his seven F1 World Championship titles, Schumacher had already attracted attention with his performances in F3 and the World Sportscar Championship at a time when the profile of German F3 was rising, and within a year, he had already made his Grand Prix début. Heinz-Harald Frentzen competed against Schumacher (sharing the runner-up position in 1989), and later became a winner of three Grands Prix. Schumacher's championship successor, Tom Kristensen from Denmark, embarked on a sportscar career that peaked with a record number of eight Le Mans wins. He has since established himself in the DTM touring car series. During the 1990s, two more future Grand Prix winners graduated from the German F3 Championship – Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli – together with many other notable drivers that include Alexander Wurz, Jos Verstappen, Norberto Fontana, Nick Heidfeld and Christijan Albers. The last champion of this period, Gary Paffett, went on to win the DTM drivers' championship title and worked as a test driver for McLaren-Mercedes. In 2007, he returned to racing in the DTM. 2003 onwards In 2002, the motorsport governing bodies of France and Germany collaborated to revive the concept of a European F3 championship. The F3 Euroseries was supposed to replace the German and French national championships – indeed, the French championship came to an end at that point. However, the German championship had more entrants, many of whom had concerns about the inevitable cost increase that a pan-European event calendar would entail. Bertram Schäfer led moves to maintain some form of national F3 series in Germany, and had support from ADAC and the F3V (Germany's national F3 association). In 2003, the new series was inaugurated, with Schäfer himself functioning as the series promoter. The Recaro Formel 3 Cup had title sponsorship from Recaro, a racing parts company based in Germany. It was replaced in 2007 by wheel manufacturer ATS. In 2005, a two-tier championship class system was adopted for chassis specifications from