A quiet winter ahead for Schumacher

- Test the new car
- Annual FIA X-mas party where he'll receive the WC title and trophy
- Revealing of the 2005 car
- Annual skiing event in the Italian alps with Rubens

 

Also:

- Drive a race kart
- Test the 360 Challenge - practice for the RoC
- RoC
- Go to Finland and chill there

 

Are you referring to that annual go kart event outside of Paris? I think that is some charity event, isn't it?

 

I bet (but not with money ... gets too ugly) that MS will call in to the Ferrari F1 factory many times, ensuring he is knee deep in the new car.

I also bet as soon as the new car can turn a wheel ... MS turns up at the factory.

The guy just loves the sport and will never be so far away that he cannot be involved in the next car.

Pete
ps: RB on the other hand will be enjoying family time (as he should) content to see the car and get to know it next year some time (they know what they are doing and don't need me RB thinks, I'm just a driver ... ), maybe a couple of days before the first race ... and he wonders why the team love MS, and also why MS has that upper hand at the beginning of the season and why it gets built to suit him.

I guess you have to be there to have any input ... ... not hard to work that out is it!

 

I think Schumi does a lot of Karting for fun
- By himself and with his family
- Races with professional Karters - he takes part in the Paris event as mentioned by you ...
- As part of the Ferrari meet

I remember once watching a clip where he was racing with some of the other F1 guys on ice and he was coming down a straight when he did a neat pirouette (full 360 degree turn) and continued on without breaking his stride.

Ross Brawn mentioned in an F1 racing mag interview that Schumi's talent was difficult to discern in an F1 car because the drivers are forced to keep it smooth to get the max speed out of it. He saw Schumi drive a twin engine Kart once where Schumi never kep the car pointing straight - it was a good display of car control

 

Interesting. He must have actually improved his kart game while driving a F1. I'm serious: He was never a super star in the kart. He was good, but not stellar. Not until he got into a Formula Ford (it wasn't a Formula Ford, but whatever the German equivalent was at the time), that's when his true talent finally came out.

 

This is Michael's record before he came to F1:
1990
WSPC/Sauber-Mercedes, 5th (1 win)
Formula 3: Winner German Championship, Winner F3-GP Fuji
1989
Finishes third in F3 German Championship behind Karl Wendlinger and Heinz-Harald Frentzen.
1988
Formula Konig: German Champion
Formula Ford 1600: German Championship: 4th
Formula Ford 1600: European Championship: 2nd
1987
German and European Kart Champion
1986
German Kart Championship: 3rd
European Championship: 3rd
1985
German Kart Junior Championship
World Championship runner-up
1984
German Kart Junior Championship

Its true that before he showed up on the F1 grid in 1991 that Michael was considered good but not really the best that everyone had seen. He was rated below H-H Frentzen and K Wendlinger when they all raced for the Mercedes Grp C team.

Somehow when he went F1 it was like a switch was flipped and all his talent and greatness suddenly burst through. Even in 1991 to 1993 - the early years he showed his speed, race consistency and thinking ability. At the end of 1993, Senna acknowledged that Michael was the one he would be challenging in the next year ....

And yes he must have improved his Kart game because it was last year or so that Michael went for the Euro championships against the best Karters in the world and there were two qualifying heats - Michael's group had to qualify when the circuit was wet while the other group qualified in the dry. So as it happened , Michael started the race about two-thirds the way down the grid but fought himself back to the front and finished second.

It has been different route for many others - take Jan Magnusson, Johnny Herbert or Jean Alesi - when they burst into the F1 scene everyone assumed that they would definitely be champions based on their dominance in the lower classes. But it didnt happen. I think if Alesi didnt drive for Ferrari in his earlier years he might have left a greater mark in F1. Herbert's accident in F3 that made him limp for rest of his life ruined some of his speed.

Utter dominance in lower classes doesn't guarantee dominance in F1. Sato is a good example. I guess it is because in the lower classes raw speed and courage makes the biggest difference. In F1 the drivers are assaulted with a lot of other things that they arent used - minute setup details, PR work, publicity .... it takes some of them a couple years to find their groove.

 

Very much agree. Ferrari ruined Alesi's career ... too much too soon.

Some I think just find the step too large ... this happens at any step up in class. Some find stepping from F Ford to F3000 to large ... and career peters out.

Pete

 

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