Hypothetical question: What if..............

No doubt that Schumacher would have worn down Hamilton in to a tidy little past by now. I dont think the English press would have had as much effect in an non English team.

My Opinion, but there would be no way he would have let Hamilton come in .... but if he had... I think he would have phyched out Hamilton well before now. Look at Barrichello.... he was putty in just a couple of months.

 

thats pretty true. he's been training for this.

he's lucky enough to start his career in a top team, unlike MS, Alonso, Senna, and Kimi.

 

the same thing would have happened if Michael Jordan had not retired but insead went over to L.A to play with Shaq and Kobe in those years.

 

Seriously. Alonso is a world class driver, and when people say that Michael is far above Alonso, that's a strong exaggeration and an indication of their bias and their romantic desire to see Michael as some god who came down from the heavens and settled into an F1 car.

That being said, Michael Schumacher is one of the best of all time. Alain Prost said a few years ago that "Michael's ability to drive a car is probably in the top 5 of all time", but what most impressed Alain was Michael's ability outside of the car, his ability to motivate a team to fully support him. With that being said, the fact is the difference in skill between top level F1 drivers is very small. The good drivers (by F1 standards) are getting 98%-99% out of these cars, and the difference between a mediocre driver and a top level one, is down tenths of a second. It is simply not realistic to say that Michael's skill is "far above" Alonso's, because there is only so much you can get out of a car, it has it's design limits, and it has it's physical limitations. Michael doesn't have some psychic ability to levitate a car and make it do "magical" things, although I know some of you would like to think that.

Also, last year it was clear the Renaults had an advantage early in the season. As the season progressed however, bridgestone made some gains which made the Ferrari the superior car, along with the ban of the Renault mass damper. Towards the end of the season the Ferrari was significantly better, accept in the wet. In the wet, the bridgestones had a distinct disadvantage compared to the michelins. This allowed Jenson Button to take his win at Hungary, along with Fernando and Fisi retiring.

In summation, I know it's difficult to be accurate when rating an F1 driver skill. The differences in competitiveness in the cars, the electronic aids, the difficulty of passing thanks to the aero etc. Considering this, it's ok to admit that you can't logically decipher who is the better driver, at least then you wouldn't loose credibility by trying to pass off you inner feelings (bias) as a fact.

 

Schumi isn't far above Alonso, and the 06 Renault wasn't far above the Ferrari - I'd argue the opposite. I think the Ferrari was faster on average over the season. The Ferrari had 16 front row starts and the Renault 11. That indicates a significant speed differential.

Ferrari shot itself in the foot with its horrible grid positions for a number of races (not something related to outright speed, but reliability or penalties).

 

No you can not have a dollar. And by your logic you would never make a dollar if you were betting on driver ratings. If there are 22 drivers on the grid, then there are just over 2 drivers per slot in your countdown. This would make Fisi #7 on the current grid. Are you seriously believing yourself that there are only six drivers out of the 22 that would rate above Fisi?Not to mention that you including MS in this count which would actually change the numbers
Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put you down or something, but I just don't think that thought out your math very well in this case. It also makes me wonder- if fisi gets 7 out of ten, and Schu is 10, then who the heck would get even a two or a one?

 

+1

 

+1000 I will always think that Clark and Senna were a cigarette paper quicker, but wow boy Michael did take your breath away with some of his driving.......AND THIS FROM A CONFIRMED SENNA FANATIC!!!!!!

 

Great Post James.

 

as usual your head is up your arse with these comments...

 

Yeah, I doubt people would rank order Fisi as #7 on the F1 grid.

 

+1

 

Dan:

You do realize who you are arguing with, don't you? You are wasting your time and bandwidth trying to talk sense with this guy.

 

+1

Excellent post, Max.

Schumacher is without question one of the 5 greatest drivers to ever sit in an F1 car and his abilities outside of the car have no equal in F1 history.

Inside the car, however, he did have weaknesses, however small. He was prone to lapses in judgement under pressure and he was able to be rattled in the car while being pursued from behind. He was an intimidating sight to have in your mirrors but he was also subject to being intimidated himself while being under pressure from behind. His weaknesses were miniscule as a driver (and far, far less than most) but they did exist.

The closest man F1 has ever seen to being without weakness in the cockpit was Jimmy Clark.

 

Excellent Post Ted, Clark was really on a different level, sublime I think you call it.

 

No doubt!