If Michael Schumacher didn't retire after last season...

MS would be leading the championship. No question about it. And I'm not a MS fan. The man retired a year too early. He'd be bagging an 8th title. I'm 100% convinced of that.

I'm a big Luca fan, but he did make a mistake here.

 

If MS was there Ross Brawn would probably still be there and I think he would be pushing for a championship. Mclaren have a great 2007 package so I think they would be pushing for the championship also regardless of who was driving. I just think the 2007 Ferrari MS team and it was"His" team would be alot closer to McLaren.

 

I think the McLaren would still be leading the constructor championship based on shown reliability, the driver championship would be a toss up.

 

I AM a Michael Schumacher fan and I still don't think Ferrari would be in a much better position than they are now. Team dominance seems to go in cycles. I think Massa and Kimi are both competent drivers but I don't believe that the car is quite up to the task at the moment. That being said - these things have a way of changing. Development is a fluid thing and we could see a greater challenge (I hope) from Ferrari in the second half of the season.

 

Looking at this year's racing results, here is what MS would have done:

- He'd won what Massa and Kimi won, but as 1 person hence bagging all the points.
- He'd won Sepang starting from pole.
- He'd not overseen the red light in Montreal and would have at least ended up 3rd.

So you could basically take Massa's points and add about 20 to them, which puts you right where Hamilton is. As I said, I'm not a MS fan, but think this is a fairly realistic scenario. And we haven't even discussed the positive effect MS would have had on car development.

 

Exactly and this is one of the things that made Schumacher great, he would be in there sleeves rolled up with the team day in day out trying to improve the car..When he "retired" I think alot of the special chemistry that bonded the Ferrari team and spurred them to overacheive was lost..and it aint there with Masa or Kimi.

 

Ferrari got it wrong - and the "cracks" around Raikkonen's poor performance are only just the beginning.

Luca/Todt may well have played their part in forcing Schumi's hand, but the real issues started with Carlos Ghosn and Renault's are we/aren't we staying in F1.

No uncertainty on Renault's part - no need for Alonso to go etc etc etc.

This is going to be controversial to some - but Raikkonen has no place in F1,he should be stateside in Champcar or IRL.

Schumi and Massa v Hamilton and Alonso - that would have been good to see and who knows we still might!!

 

Funny you say this I was thinking the same thing. If Ferrari and Kimi continue they way they have been maybe MS will get called up..kind of like Rogers Clemens was this year for the Yankees to get them out of a hole....

Wishful thinking indeed.....

 

kind of like Stallone in Driven.

 

Kimi should be in CART... I'm willing to bet Ferrari will have made a nice turnaround with their new package and you'll see Kimi starting to drive like the driver he is. He'll best FM in the next two races.

If MS was around he'd be tied if not leading the DC at this point. Like others here I'm no MS fan but I've got a world of respect for his talent. Both as a driver and a team leader.

 

+1

 

whilst on the subject of Schumacher there is two of them dont you think its about time his brother followed suit !!?

 

Actually there are 3 Schumacher brothers, but the third is even worse than Ralfie.

 

bloody hell i give up

 

Some people had wondered if Alonso gave good feedback to develop the car. Apparently he does. We knew both Montoya and Kimi weren't drivers that gave great feedback to develop the car. So Kimi isn't expected (by me) to be a great asset in the car development. I had thought that Massa might be good enough along with the test drivers and Michael's involvement and help. You can see that both started the season closely competitive, and McLaren is clearly in the advantage the past few races.

People can say how Michael requires the team to revolve around him to succeed, but I always thought that he knew what he needed in the car to be competitive and is able to communicate that to the team and the team delivered. Watching Michael over the Ferrari years religiously, you can tell when he knows what Ferrari needs to do, when he is not certain why he/team is beaten, and I have seen shots, video clips where he gets out of his race car, and studying the other podium cars when he did not win.

I believe that Kimi is a talented driver to win when there is a good car. How many good drivers can help develop a car and team to win consistently. I wondered if Alonso could, given the McLaren results, he might be very good there...and perhaps Hamilton is also quite an asset in that area.

Can't wait to see how Ferrari responds in France.

 

I would have to disagree. The car is the problem, not the current drivers. The word used most often is grip. The car does not stick to the corners as well as the McLarens. Until possibly this next race in France. Certainly MS would have been up a few more points than Massa, but Lewis and Alonso would still be ahead in the points.

Luca did not force Michael into retirement, he forced him to make a decision by Monza and not the last race in Brazil and Michael wanted to do. For that you can commend Montezemelo for doing the right thing for the team.

 

Thats what I would have hoped to see this year! IMO, I think MS vs Hamilton vs Alonso with Massa bringing up the rear would have been a good one to watch!

I am a big MS fan, and I still think he is a better driver than the rest, and would be a points leader if he were still in it if his car were reliable. For that matter, he would have won last year if his car had been more reliable!

 

The car has problems, no question. But Kimi getting beaten by Massa is a driver problem. And the problem lies squarely with Kimi.

 

Well stated, now watch Kimi win this weekend.

 

Agreed. I've always been a Kimi fan, but have definite questions about him at the moment. He obviously isn't committing 100% of one or more organs. Whether it's heart, brain or balls I can't tell, but he needs to do much better.

 

The fact is that Schumi always got the maximum out of a package during Qualifying and the Race, i have not seen anyting that says FM or KR do the same ! Ferrari in the last 3 races have been struggling in qualifying and they have always lost lots of ground to the Macca's on there in and out laps during the race (massa lost almost 10 sec's at indy at at the 1st stop) Schumi was a Qually genus and the fastest driver ever on in laps and out laps ( how many times did we see him take postions during pitstops).

If the Schum was in the car this year, he would be a lot closer, if not head of the maccas.

I still find it depressing that the fastest guy on earth sits on the pit-wall !!!

 

I'm glad to see that someone else feels this way - very sad