I disagree. To make a simplistic toilesque comparison, he was as strong as Rosberg, in race trim typically there or faster. Now translate that to whom Rosberg is keeping honest. Schumi didn't do entirely well in qualy, but then that was never where he shined the most. What he did have, though, was a number of strange accidents.
Whatever interview you read of Schumacher you will see that he never thought to much about stats and "reputation". This is why he even accepted the loss of the second place in the WDC after the "Villeneuve-incident" because it harmed him less than a single point penalty for the upcoming season... Schumacher came back racing because he wanted to and maybe because he also did not know what else to do (his bike career was not really the best idea). And even without the big success I think he still enjoyed it. Let´s face it: he was payed well for doing what he likes... And for those who think this hurts his reputation they should ask themselves whether a comback can ever take away something you achieved before? I do not think so...
It did hurt his reputation. I would view Kimi as a top 20 driver had he not come back to f1. Definitely no longer.
You should differ between "a top 20 driver" and "my top 20 driver", apparently both are completely different things.
Behind who? Any list I have ever seen honestly the top 3 are Senna, Schumacher and Fangio in whatever order. But those are always the top 3. Struggling to think who MSC would have "slipped behind" because of his comeback.
Prost and Jim Clark in the views of some. Invincibility is put in perspective when a dominant car, team orders and a Substandard team mate are removed from the equation. Schumacher was old otherwise rosberg would have stood no chance but it counts for something imo
I think most people will have near or enough the same people in their top 20 just in different orders. Your top 20 won't look much different to mine in terms of who is in it as much as you may think otherwise
That's silly. I'm a huge Prost fan but he was never better than MS (and I really am not a MS fan anymore). And Clark, that's a lot of woulda, coulda, shouldas. Heck my hero Siffert beat Clark once. So what? MS is the goat. Simple as that. Agreed on those. MS was way past his use-by date. He was a mere shadow of himself during his Merc years. F1 comebacks are hard to pull off and pretty much impossible once you're past 40 (in the modern F1 that is). Lauda was the last successful comeback, but he was way younger and he ended up in a dominant car.
Yep- Took the words out of my mind! Schumacher could only go down from day 1 of his comeback. It was exciting to see what he could do, but sadly wrong car at wrong time. Had he come back to Ferrari however - it could have been different. I think Schumacher was never the same after his motorcycle accident.
I still think Schumacher when you look at the percentages and wins etc...would have to be #1. there is just no way you can say that Fangio, Clark, Prost or Stewart are better the stats are not there. Prost was Excellent and I would easily say he was better than Senna. so to me he would be 3rd all time behind Schumacher and Fangio. I think Clark and Stewart are up there as well for the time they raced and how difficult / Dangerous it was. Clark if he lasted the race ususally won, and Stewart - how can you finish an F-1 race in rain and Fog at the Nurburging and win by 7 minutes and not be one of the very best ever. Lauda is a hero of mine... but he pales compared to those mentioned above. NONE of the current drivers - Vettel included are in the same class.
I don't know why Schumacher came back. Maybe trying to lend his experience to Mercedes and repay the help he received from them early on in his career. We can speculate. Or maybe his return was the first step to become Mercedes ambassador in future. The 3 years he drove with them were not crowned with glory though ... It must have been an anti-climax after his successful decade at the Scuderia. I think Ferrari felt betrayed when he signed to drive for Mercedes; LdM hinted as much.
Maybe. He claimed headaches when testing for Ferrari because of his accident. Yet a few months later he was happily driving in the Merc. However the damage caused by the accident was most likely a contributing factor to his current condition.
Let's not forget that Prost would be a 7 times WDC if wins were worth 10 points and all results counted. I don't rate him above Schumacher simply because he never had the qualifying pace but I think he's better than some people say and I can understand if someone rates him over Schumacher or senna. Clark was a beast but he died too early to show what he was really capable of. @spirot I really hope one day you change your view of alonso as merely an average driver
I thought that affected more the backbone than the skull back then...So I doubt that it had a lot of effect but I am no doctor...
Agreed there. I never liked Senna but I can understand Senna fans who put him over Prost. Not a fan of either. Yes they were greats but I'm not willing to put them that high. Totally disagree. Lauda is my super-hero. I think he beats all of them (except Bellof ). And I do think the current drivers deserve their dues. Vettel is fantastic and so is Hamilton. Not their fault that the cars are safer and they can't do any testing anymore.
No. AFAIK (no medical doctor here) there are three main arteries going to the brain feeding it with blood. MS lost one of them in the accident. And it was IIRC the one that would have been feeding the side of his brain that was most affected by the skiing accident. You are correct that MS' doctor said that because of his neck injuries he'd be a vegetable if he ever had a high speed accident again. Obviously that didn't happen despite MS having several bad F1 accidents after the bike accident.
Oh, I did not know that...Thanks I just remember that they said there was a fracture at the backbone and that it would be to dangerous to drive at this early time as it was not healed by then and therefore a "weak part" in case something would have happened in F1...
How do you know so much...geez This man is wise and if he thinks Hamilton is 7 or 8th all time then you should all listen to him
??? Not only is your post once again showing on what nonsense you build your world view. You also call a man wise for claiming to know something that is not popular knowledge on a topic that went through the global media due to a super star having a terrible incident??? It is either just gossip (for relevance of the topic) or it is non-public knowledge he gained by hanging out in a place it was shared. What makes him wise? Only something in your head. Tifosi12 is by the way the very person that claimed that Mercedes would never build a title contender and Gozilla would return to the world before MAMG will win WDC etc... (or something very similar).
Mercedes didn't hire MS back then expecting to win championships with him. They hired him to help the team to develop a better and more competitive car. And eventually they did. Let's not forget that MS not only was a good race car driver but a great test car driver. Something that Alonso doesn't have and that's why he couldn't help Ferrari. Instead he was only complaining IMO. I believe that the success that we see those few past years with Mercedes might be a result of MS helping the team back then.
You nailed it Scud. Greatest tester of all time, as well as greatest competitive F1 driver of all time. Mercedes knew what they were doing
