Would the Schumacher era be like this without TC?

The control ECU has brought some excitment this season, since the teams cannot legally employ traction control, and more importantly, engine braking aids.
Would the Ferrari dominated era be more exciting, like it is currently, if driver aids were illegal? Ferrari had the best traction control, and the best team management at the time, but my question is, would Schumacher be as consistent with all of the driver aids, or would be make more mistakes that might snowball into him not getting the title in one of his winning years?

 

Schumacher won the WDC without electronic aids...or so he says

 

Mike was the best at developing and driving any car in F1. The less driver aids in the cockpit the more advantage to Mike. I truly believe that he would be mopping the track with everyone if he were still driving today. Thus it is my opinion that he was forced to leave for the good of the sport. He was wrapping things up way to early in the season for the liking of the FIA, Mosley and Bernie. His leaving had absolutely nothing to do with whom his driving partners would have been. Infact the way Kimi is driving now.....

 

So too say Ross Brawn, Pat Symonds, Flavio Briatore, Steve Matchett and everyone else who was actually a part of the Bennetton team in the mid 90's. As opposed to fans on the outside who only have a conspiracy theory to go on.

 

+100

 

Schumacher dominated all forms of motorsport from Carting up to F1...I'm pretty sure his go cart had no TC......

 

This is all true, but he used TC to the fullest, and perhaps he may have not been as consistent without it, making small mistakes here and there.
He would still be a multiple world champion, but would he be as dominating? I think a few more mistakes would have happened. Like big ones, where he spins off the road during qualifying.

 

+ a billion.

 

It is more than mere conspiracy theory. Actually, his car DID have electronic traction control software, it was hidden as Option 13 on his engine mapping and was discovered by the FIA during an inspection of the Benetton. The team claimed it was left there inadvertantly and that they never used it, an explanation accepted by the FIA

However there are also photographs taken at the time of the car on track that strongly suggested he was using traction control. However most importantly, Ayrton Senna was absolutely convinced that Schumacher was using traction control after watching the car's behavior from behind.

I would take Ayrton Senna's word over any of yours.

 

Wasn't Senna gay?



...oh sorry, wrong thread.

 

ROFL

 

Don't forget bloodlust and undifferentiated rage, they have that in buckets as well.

 

I would take Senna's word over mine too lol. He was the best. But it's not my word I'm going on, it's Ross Brawn and Pat Symonds. I respect them enormously for their achievements and for the way in which they have run their teams. They have been absolutely adamant, to the point of becoming angry, in interviews when asked about the legality of the Benetton at that time. The infamous Option 13 did look bad on the surface. But after further investigation, the FIA accepted the explanation and imposed no penalties.

And with regard to Senna's observations, I dont think he was in a position to to make a definitive judgement about what was going on inside the Benetton. There are many ways to control the behavior of the cars which could look as if the rules are being broken, but on closer inspection are perfectly legal. A good example is recently when all the Lewis haters were calling him a cheat because of a perfectly legal diff control on the McLaren, something it turns out several other teams already use.

Ted, when the Stepney scandal first broke last year, you were one of the few to reserve judgement until all the facts were in and a verict was made, and you were absolutely right in doing so. Considering the FIA cleared Benetton back then and nothing else has emerged since to change their view, I honestly can't agree that they were cheating.

 

I didn't say that they were cheating, I just said that they had an illegal traction control system on the car and that Senna believed them to be using it. That the software was on the Benetton is indisputable and confirmed by the FIA in their investigation.

If I were one of the conspiracy theorists like those harping around here, I would be saying something like the FIA couldn't afford a cheating scandal so soon after the deaths at Imola and Wedlinger's accident at Monaco...

http://www.grandprix.com/gt/gt00044.html

 

I think traction control allowed some drivers to be more competitive, and without them Michael would have been even more dominant. Ferrari got it all right, but his driving skills would have shone even more relative to the competition.

 

Apologies, I incorrectly assumed the cheating accusation.

As for the FIA's finding about Benetton, take as an example what happened to McLaren last year. They were confirmed to have been in posession of Ferrari information but with no further proof of its use they were let off without penalty. Once Alonso revealed facts that the team had indeed used it, the hammer came down hard. It was the same with Benetton except part 2 never happened. Now that doesn't change how fishy everything sounds and I would be inclined to call BS their explanations. But the men running the technical side were Brawn and Symonds and that adds alot of credibility IMO.

 

Didn't Senna also crash out early in one race, but stayed track side, because he thought he could hear the sound of traction control misfiring in Schumacher's car?

 

Sounds like Senna had mental problems.

 

Possibly.
He seemed quite obsessed and paranoid.

 

So neither of you would care if you thought someone was cheating if you were an F1 driver?

 

Several drivers commented about this while following Michael's Benetton.

 

Yeah, Michael's Ferrari too (when TC was banned)

 

Really? Care to remind me who won the title in 06?

 

The FIA, in their McLaren decision, stated that mere possession of the information was cause for penalties.

Their finding in the first ruling was that Coughlan had the information but that there was no evidence he disseminated it within the team. Following Alonso's emails, it became clear that the information HAD in fact been disseminated within the team and hence the penalty.

 

no excuses,yet schumi had it won.Rare reliabilty woes in Suzuka really ended it.I doubt Fernando has or ever will drive like Schumi did in his closing laps @ Iterlagos.
Ask Kimi.