A long time touring car driver in Germany, he then switched to GT racing, initially as a driver (he won the FIA GT title in 2006 and 2008 as a driver, 2009 and 2010 as a driver and team owner), and then running his own team, Vita4One. Bartels, who lives in Monte Carlo, no longer runs his team and works on young driver coaching and promotion. Earlier in his career, Bartels won the German Formula Ford 1600 title in 1986, but Formula 1 with Lotus, arguably came too early for Michael and it was a great disappointment for all concerned. Michael's father, Willi, who died in 2005, was twice European Hillclimb Champion and in 2017, Michael competed in an one-off hillclimb event at Osnabruck to honour his father. Michael also works closely with Maserati in their German car sales in promotion and he does quite a lot of historic racing events.

Biography last updated 23 Jul 2018