Thoughts about Schumacher's last race

BTW: We already know what MS is doing post racing: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/michael-schumacher-could-venture-into-horse-riding/301100-5-24.html

His wife is already big in this field apparently, and also they have just bought a ranch in Texas.
Pete
ps: I can't rate him as a true champion because he cheated ... sorry. I seriously wish he had never done it, but he did it too often to be excused. Great driver but not a champion

 

Don't have to be sorry mate. I think everyone is entitled to their own opinion

 

I really wish he could've made it 100 wins. Nice round figure and all that. Mercedes was a team of empty promises. This years car looked great in the beginning of the season but it was unreliable and became a turd. Most races it actually was an unreliable turd.

The shoe has made a few mistakes this year but his pole was fantastic in Monaco.

 

With one comeback complete, it is time for another comeback:
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Big big respect for the guy....he will be missed...i wasn´t his biggest fan but i´ve always admired him, and i´m thankfull for everything he helped Ferrari achieve.....he will forever be among the top of the top...congrats Michael!!!

 

And the avatar too?

Man, you're desperate these days.

 

Everyone's gotta have a hobby.


Speedcore is dead right. His entire comeback is a bag full of what ifs and it will be remember as such. His respect from fellow drivers has not diminished so what the people think is frankly irrelevant. Regardless of results, he's just done something in modern formula 1 that no other former f1 driver in his early 40s would ever dream of doing. His final year I believe he bested his teammate, but it's too bad his car was so unreliable during the early part of the year when the car actually had some pace on occasion. Really heartbreaking stuff but it is what it is.

 

At worst he is going to tie Rosberg this year in qualifying, including being fastest in Monaco. A staggering feat for 43 years old. Not to mention his brilliant showings in the wet quali sessions this year.

 

Here's a short story that shows a less well-publicised side of Schumacher: http://www.f1speedwriter.com/2012/10/michaels-dream-comes-true_4.html

 

Nice story.

 

Over the years I've become a Michael Fan. at the beginning I did not like him, thought he was too arrogant and a bit cunning for his own good.

But at Germany 2001, I was super impressed with his personal appearance and willingness to spend time with people. I had the opportunity to be a guest of the team and at first thought he would be a huge ass, but he was completely the opposite. he took time to indroduce him self, - in several languages, signed caps and programs ( I still have my caps) and was an overall super nice person - a complete suprise. the fact that the team personnel were so easy with him also suprise me.

I'm just glad that he's survived all the stuff of F-1, and the winningest driver in F-1 histroy will be with us for a lot longer now that he is not driving... But It would be cool if he went into LeMans racing...

 

Regardless of where he finishes he is the man and will always remain the man in my opinion. It was great to see his courage and that is something that can never will be taken away.

 

It's my version of Schumacher appreciation week.

Touche.
Sadly mine is coming to an end on Sunday. Will have to find another pet peeve.

+ a million

ALMS would be ultra cool.

 

Always a big fan of his and felt like if he wanted to come back and race good for him. Hard to call it a "what if" time period though. The MB was mostly a best of the rest car for the 3 years but Nico beats him all 3 years and 2 of those by double the points. He gets 5 podiums and a win to MS one podium. This year finds him behind both Saubers, both Force India, and one Williams. Watching him at COTA go from 5 to 16 making double blocking moves was sad. Surely one of the best of all time but time to hang it up.

 

There are so many caveats to what happened to his car reliability wise and team wise I can't begin to count. His points finishing positions are toy unquantifiable considering the circumstances of each race, especially this year whch is why it is utterly upsurd to judge Michael's comeback based on points. 100% completely upsurd.

 

+1

Counting all his reliability issues and Rosbergs he would've been well ahead of him. Outqualified him as well so far it seems, with one race able to make it 10-10 or 12-8...I think

 

You can say it is a great accomplishment to compete in F1 at his age. I agree that it is (but do not think that does much for him, he wants to win). But if not the points, what is it? Podiums, polls, wins? I think it's unfair to Nico in that it's not like half of one season. They have gone head to head in 57 races over 3 seasons. Do you think MS could have won 4 times in the Macca this year or 3 times in the Ferrari? I think it became quickly clear on his return that he was not going to best Hami, Seb, or Fred and that he was not going to return to the top, with or without the car. None of that takes away from his vast career but I just don't think what if's apply....unless maybe in a F2002 like car with Barichello back lol!

I am not sure how much of that is the car and his skills versus the change in the sport. He had had virtually unlimited testing and a tire company building tires to suit his taste for each race track. He and his car have struggled with this on his return.

As far as sounding like a hater, I already gave my fawning praise and adulation at his first retirement so judging this tenure for what it was.

 

I completely relate to this summation.

 

He was still fast enough to put it on the grid P6 (P5 after GRO's penalty), but the MB is a tire eating monster. Neither Mercedes was within shouting distance of the points if you look at it objectively...

 

Actually when his car was capable he absolutely did best most of those guys. Check the qualifying results from early in the year when the MB was worth a damn. Included in this, of course, is dusting Hamilton, Alonso, and Vettel at Monaco, where the driver matters most.

4 wins in a Mac? Yeah I think he could have done that (was the best car for much of the year).

3 wins in a Ferrari? Nope. I don't think anyone but Alonso could have had 3 wins in the Ferrari.

 

Points tell very little of the story.

It cannot go unmentioned the number of times his car broke, or the fact that W03 was somewhat competitive during the first part of the season, but each and every time it was competitive his car broke. The latter part of the season his car was reliable, but it was terribly uncompetitive, but he still finished ahead of Nico most of those races.

W02 was the same story. Terrible reliability the first half of the season, then the second half of the season Michael out-scored Nico a massive amount of the time. Michael also set up W02 for race pace and not qualy pace basically because for him, W02 just could not do both. And if you noticed Nico's pace in W02, Nico was much slower on mid-fuel tanks than Michael was because Nico setup the car for qualy which is why Michael slaughtered Nico the second half of the season when Michael's car actually decided to stay together. Michael in W02 in the wet in Canada was a swan song for Michael as he was the fastest car on the track in the wet, it was brilliant. Had it kept wet, Michael had the race in the bag. It's criminal the luck Michael has had in this comeback.

W01 was Michael just getting back into the game. I make no excuse for him this season, he needed time to get back into things, which he did quite well by the end of the year. His results once W02 decided to stay in one piece prove this.

In the end, Mercedes was just not a team (at the time) who could appropriately handle Michael's abilities.

 

Putting W03 where he did last weekened was an honest to God miracle.

 

That wasn't bad luck, that was the chickens at the FIA making the cars run around behind the safety car till they practically needed inters! Such pussification of the sport cost MS loads of laps when the track was actually wet (and he was fastest). By the time the safety car finally went in MS was fast at first while it was still pretty wet but it dried out quickly and he was a sitting duck in the long DRS zone.

That was Michael's race to win and that chance was taken from him due to the FIA being ridiculously over-cautious, IMO.

 

Hey,

The latest installment of "The Schumachers" at Sniff has Michael saying to Ralf; "**** it, you can drive the last race for me."



Love those guys!

Cheers,
Ian

 

ROFL