Thoughts about Schumacher's last race

+1 on both

 

I'm afraid I disagree with you on the dimisished skills. Look at his last season with Ferrari and you will see a number of races in which he found himself in the middle of the pack early and just stayed there. Ferrari knew what they were doing when they nudged him out. I'm a believer that Michael wasn't the most naturally gifted driver ever. He worked and worked and worked. He had unbelieveable drive, which showed in some of the more unfortunate incidents he was involved in over his career. I think that all that hard work he did to achieve what he did finally wore down and there was just less flame left. It showed many times in the past three years when he qualified well, but couldn't apply the same level of energy during the race. His achievements are unmatched, at least for now. Amazing as it seems, Vettel is on a course to catch him. Personally, I'd hate to see it.

 

A very unpopular view around here but one I couldn't agree more with. In 2006 the writing was on the wall, that he was definitely on a decline. The accident in the warmup lap to the Chinese (?) GP was proof of that. Everybody blamed Jos (?) for it but it was MS who screwed up.

Spot on again.
He was hugely talented but his relentless work ethics were just as big a part of his success. Paired with less of competition during the Ferrari WDC years and a dream team (Brawn, Todt) and the unlimited testing/development cycle from Ferrari and "personalized" Bridgestone tires did the rest.

 

Of course his skill have diminished. Even he's acknowledged it....he's not in his 20s and he's never pretended otherwise. I still think he's better than a lot of the other drivers.

I agree that in the last year or two with Ferrari, things no longer worked like clockwork. A mistake here and there....stuff that never happened before.

Vettel has a huge head start on Schumacher's achievements age wise. If he stays in good winning teams, he should smash MS's records.

 

I hope not

 

In a way it'd be nice if he did as I like Vettel a lot.

Then again for the sport it'd be horrendous if we'd have to endure another 4 years of boredom.

So I'd rather leave the MS records alone and have a different WDC every year.

 

Could not agree more with you Andreas, Happy Thanksgiving.

 

I'd like to see him finish fourth in the rain. Taking fastest lap honours while holding off Vettel as Fred takes the race. 285 - 283, Baby!

REDEMPTION

 

+285!

 

He doesn't have to do it every year in a row....he can afford to space them out a little

 

Excellent post. Totally agree.

Pete

 

deja vu

 

Hey - send me a pm! Been a while since we tried to meet up; plenty of time now.
Thanks.
Kevin

 

?????

BHR
2 MAL
6 AUS
Ret SMR
1 EUR
1 ESP
2 MON
5 GBR
2 CAN
2 USA
1 FRA
1 GER
1 HUN
8† TUR
3 ITA
1 CHN
1 JPN
Ret BRA
4


I don't see how that is 'staying in the middle of the pack'?

Even in 2005 he did very well with a car with terrible bridgestones, finishing 3rd in the WDC compared to barrichello's 8th.

 

Lol he put a Jordan 7th on the grid in his first race and beat Senna his second year in F1. He was unbelievably naturally talented.

 

I never said he wasn't.

But one thing that made him so hugely successful (in addition to his talent) was his teutonic work effort and the alignment of the stars with the dream team, endless resources at Ferrari, unlimited testing and personalized Bridgestone tires. All these things were gone in his comeback years; instead he got older and a midfield car from MB.

 

He was a beast long before these "custom tires" that his detractors always cheekily bring up. When did he get those anyway? I'm thinking like 2003 well after he had smashed every F1 record imaginable.

Obviously he wasn't the same driver in 2006 as he was in 1998 but he won 7 races and was an engine failure away from an 8th title. His return? A failure but that is due to MB not Michael. He showed lots of times he still has it if the car is up to snuff, particularly in the wet.

 

Rosberg thanks you for this comment.


After all he beat your Wunderkind 3 years in a row.

 

It's a failure because what do you expect when you're talking MS? WDCs.

Who really gives a **** about scrapping for 8th place, which has been all the Merc has been good for. As for Rosberg, we can get into how schumi has had 5x the mechanical failures but I'm bored of trying to talk to haters objectively.

You didn't answer me anyway, when did MS get these custom tires (honestly curious)

 

Give it up.

You know as well as others that his car had broken down so many times from good positions, especially this year, but chose to ignore it. It's pretty ****ing childish.

 

" Life is about passions. THANK YOU for sharing mine. "


I think, it sums it up...

There are folks out there who will miss him,
and surely he will miss those kinda folks too!!!

Servus, Michael

PS: I know, I will

 

Stay safe Michael in your last GP. You gave us many years of thrills and entertainment. I am sure he will not retire to lie in bed.

 

Bah, let's not go round and round with this again. Michael has been best in W03, but when W03 was actually competitive, it broke on Michael, many times (more than anyone on the grind). Then when W03 was actually reliable, it has been horribly uncompetitive. Michael also out-raced Nico in the entire second half of 2011 by a large margin. Had these circumstances never taken place than I would have no issue saying Nico handily outperformed Michael, but that's just not the case. And remember, even Fernando Alonso spoke of 'circumstance' especially in the mid field basically verifying its existence for all the blind people. Funny how it takes circumstance actually happening to Fernando for him to vocalize the obvious.

 

Only in the last half year did MS actually outperform Nico (and I wouldn't call that a large margin btw). The other 2.5 years Rosberg was ahead of MS despite all the rarah and hoopla when MS announced his comeback and the Rotkaeppchenfans (along with MB's management) went bezerk talking about title #8 etc.

I'm looking forward to Monday when the MS chapter finally closes for good.

 

So this year with w03 and the surrounding circumstance you still say Michael was beaten by Nico? Really? How can anyone escape the facts surrounding what happened to Michael's car the entire first half of the season. I could sell Michael's position to a jury all day long that's a winning case