Michael Schumacher

[Chris Jenkins]

Schumacher wouldn't win races in a Red Bull.
Its more than just the car.

Schumacher can't cope with having to race wheel-to-wheel, which you have to do in this day and age in F1.
In his old Ferrari, he was on pole, disappearing into the distance. He couldn't hack being challenged and he still can't to this day.

 

[Marcus Maat]

hmmm well take a look at this link Formula 1's Greatest Drivers - AUTOSPORT.com - Jacky Ickx . check out the list of F1 drivers, former and current, that voted. they voted schumacher as the second best F1 driver of all time. not too shabby a rap from 217 of your peers..

 

[Diego Lopez]

What Senna did to Prost was nothing, he was just showing that if there is a gap, he will go for it, even if its a disappearing gap, he was a real racing driver, never fought for anything but a win, and if you watched the Top Gear episode, brundle and Nigel (not the best drivers) even mention it. Schumacer might have been a drity driver, and thats because the doesnt easily give up a position, he tries to maintain it. What he did in Hungary 2010 was racing, but he should of known better than to put him near the wall like that. and I agrree with My993C2 "Schumacher definitely emulated Senna's work". Senna lost 3rd Gear in Brazil and had to stick with 6th Gear and finished the race, didnt a similar thing happened to Schumacer in Spain I believe? if so correct me. I dont see Vettel doing that, I dont see any other driver not even the current Mclarens able to achieve what Schumacer and Senna have. Lewis has that fighting ability in him but is nowhere equal to the drivers where the fought Tooth and Nail with manual gears, low downforce cars and 1000+HP turbo engines. SO to all the anti-schumacer people lets get it straight. He isnt the same anymore, that doesnt mean he still isnt a legend. But of course we cant forget the times people will accuse HIM of FIA help, or Traction Control or this or in season testing....guess what that wasnt him that was the TEAM not the DRIVER. get it right for once people and stop being mad.

and I agree that Senna was a victim of F1 politics, damn the French and the FISA back then. But hey, he didnt buy his way into F1, he didnt snug with the FISA president to win his WDCs, he set the record straight and in your face. HE is and always will be #1 and Schumi, whether the numbers talk big will never be as good as Senna but he will never give up on himself.

 

[Luke McVicar]

Sorry but this post^ is entirely stupid, let's just say the field spread in those times was massive compared to now, driving half a race in one gear would just destroy your race these days.

 

[Adam Hartwell]

Schumacher can't race wheel to wheel? Erm let's see, the battles with Hakkinen, the battles with Alonso, the world is so biased against Schumacher.

 

[Adam Hartwell]

Agreed with Luke here, the spread of the field back in them days was like 4-8 seconds in qualifying, so imagine on race pace, nowadays for example, Schumacher was 0.093 slower than Rosberg at one point in quali this season, that made him 9th and Rosberg 7th, theres like 1 second between most of the field not including Lotus HRT and Virgin and just a few tenths between the top ten.
Times have changed and wether Schumacher adapts with a decent car remains to be seen.

 

[William Levesque]

About traction control on Schumi's car: If he would have been a fair and clean driver, he would have refused it.

About winning at all cost: Sorry but it's stupid, you can do things that will put you in harm's way, but don't endanger or crash other people for that, even little bumps and such to crash them, a driver has to be respectful to his fellow competitors... Going for a disappearing gap, how smart is that ? Screw up you race alone if you feel like it but don't crash someone else being stupid... Of course you can race hard, but do it so you don't put the other guy in the barrier, like the Villeneuve/Arnoux showdown at Dijon...

Talking about Villeneuve, as far as I know I think he is still the only driver to have tried to finish the race on 3 wheels... Actually he would have done it but other people decided otherwise...

 

[Adam Hartwell]

I think it was slightly less of a big deal back in the day.
My F1 history isn't amazing but I would say Senna was more of a victim of F1 politics than Schumacher and Prost.
The latter 2 seemed to be somewhat protected by F1 politics.

Prost 1990, Schumacher 1994.
Prost got smashed off the track blatantly and deliberatley by Senna and Senna got the title.
Schumacher was almost screwed out of the 1994 title, he was running away with it so the FIA ****ed him over and i'm not excusing what Schumacher did, he shouldn't of ran into Hill but that season wasn't as clean cut as it seemed.

@ the above post, what do you mean if he was a fair and clean driver he would of refused TC, in what season? After Catalunya 2001 it was mandatory.

 

[William Levesque]

After they banned it in 1994... Leading to 2001 (I think) you were not supposed to have it but some teams used something similar...

I think Schumi's car was the only Ferrari using it... I don't know which teams used it also, but I don't care which drivers, because if they did, being Jacques Villeneuve or Damon Hill will not help your cause in my mind...

 

[Adam Hartwell]

I think your getting TC mixed up with Launch Control.

 

[William Levesque]

No I don't...

 

[Adam Eggbeer]

Schumacher was almost screwed out of the 1994 title, he was running away with it so the FIA ****ed him over and i'm not excusing what Schumacher did, he shouldn't of ran into Hill but that season wasn't as clean cut as it seemed.

Schumacher broke the rules by overtaking on the formation lap at Silverstone, and then refused to take a 5 second penalty for it, and then ignored black flags. He got disqualified for it as he was during the race and because he still refused to stop, he got a further 2 race ban, all his own fault. At Belgium, his car was too low and therefore had too much wear on the skid block. His car did not pass scrutineering and therefore, was removed from the results of the race, the teams fault. In no way did the FIA cause him to miss out on points. In fact, you could argue that he should of received a similar penalty to what he did in Jerez in 1997 for his move on Damon at Adelaide.

 

[Chris Jenkins]

schmacher copes with wheel-to-wheel encounters with malice.

See Damon Hill 1994, Villeneuve 1997, Hakkinen 2000, Alonso 2003, Barachello 2010.

 

[Bradley Vanian]

Schumacher can't race wheel to wheel? Erm let's see, the battles with Hakkinen, the battles with Alonso, the world is so biased against Schumacher.

Schumacher lost both of those battles against Hakkinen/Alonso.

 

[Christian Burge]

barachello is not the best example because it was an unfair move and he still lost the place

 

[Josh Barton]

Schumacher used to be pretty good with wheel to wheel battles. Aside from a few notable mistakes from him (usually with a championship on the line..... lol) he was generally pretty good. He could win races in poor cars, he was definetly a great racer.

However, nowadays his reactions seem to have slowed. He is constantly damaging that front wing in accidents with other cars, and whilst he still has some good pace i feel that a lot of the bad luck he is experiencing with damaged cars etc is partially self inflicted. Theres nothing to say he wont get better as the year wears on, if he can sort out his incidents then on race pace he should be able to get some good results and beat rosberg a fair bit. But we'll just have to wait and see what happens, this is f1 and anything can happen!

 

[Marcus Maat]

Schumacher used to be pretty good with wheel to wheel battles. Aside from a few notable mistakes from him (usually with a championship on the line..... lol) he was generally pretty good. He could win races in poor cars, he was definetly a great racer.

However, nowadays his reactions seem to have slowed. He is constantly damaging that front wing in accidents with other cars, and whilst he still has some good pace i feel that a lot of the bad luck he is experiencing with damaged cars etc is partially self inflicted. Theres nothing to say he wont get better as the year wears on, if he can sort out his incidents then on race pace he should be able to get some good results and beat rosberg a fair bit. But we'll just have to wait and see what happens, this is f1 and anything can happen!

agreed!

 

[Chris Jenkins]

With the exception of perhaps his earlier Bennatton cars (before the illegal traction control and illegal fuel rig), I find it hard to accept that Schumacher was racing with poor cars!

 

[Luke McVicar]

1996 Ferrari was rubbish but he managed a few wins, 1997 the ferrari was clearly slower then williams at the time but managed a title challenge.

 

[Adam Hartwell]

1996 Ferrari was rubbish but he managed a few wins, 1997 the ferrari was clearly slower then williams at the time but managed a title challenge.

Irvine actually said the 1996 Ferrari was the worst and scariest car he ever drove.
The fact Schuey won in that is incredible.