Michael after F1?

I think he'll stay around in F1, maybe for Ferrari and maybe not. If he stays with Ferrari, he could certainly take over as one of the key team managers for Ferrari. I believe Michael has always been a very strong backer for safety in racing, and I can see him leading the charge in this aspect of the sport. I'd love to see him at Le Mans driving for Ferrari. But with Ferrari putting so much money into F1, I doubt they'd field a factory team.

Just my two cents.

 

I don't believe any racecar driver has been successful at managing teams. Lauda? Prost? Nah. But MS is a team builder, and I believe he'll be in it for the long haul to develop a pair of drivers and a team.

 

Once he retires from the drivers seat, I think he will stop racing professionally. He's pretty big on making sure he doesn't have anything to happen to him, with his family and his young children. Once that happens, I think he might semi-retire, raise his kids for a few years until they are older, and maybe come back in a management role. I think he may stay around as a consultant. But he's got more then enough money to live off, so he can take his time.

 

Micheal is one of those guys if he put his mind to it, he can be #1 at anything he does. I see Micheal managing Ferrari F1 team after he retires. Jean Todt will focus on Ferrari motor cars and Micheal will take his role. I don't see Micheal just taking off and forgetting F1. He has invested way too much time and effort. Personally I think if Micheal left, the team would fall apart.

 

MS has always said that F1 is the pinnacle of motor racing and he wouldn't be interested in driving anything else. As much as I'd like to see him drive endurance sports cars, and I could see Ferrari putting together an open cockpit LeMans car similar to what Porsche is doing if MS were to drive it, MS would probably think its a step down.

 

While a familiar name every where in the world, but the USA. I predict he will work to fix this by driving for a NASCAR team.
One he wins a rew roundy round racers, and his face is on a box of cornflakes, he will truly be a "World Champion"

 

If I were MS, I would spend my retirement having sex on a pile on money with many beautiful women.

 

he prolly does that now. By the time he's old he'll be sick of it and want something else to do. I see MS staying as a racer for a few more years before finally taking some time off only to return to Ferrari as a technical director or race manager.

 

I remember reading that once MS would retire, he would not want to have anything to do with F-1 or motorsports as a whole, and that he disliked the management (corporate) aspect of it.

It's possible that once he's gone...he's gone!!

 

He actually stole his wife away from HH Frentzen a long while ago as she and the former Arrows driver were from the same town. Mentioned in a "F1 Racing" mag quite a while back.

Berger wasn't too bad. Sir Frank Williams would have been one if he was able to fund his drive back in the 60s. I think in the past few decades, with such media hype, they are set up to fail as everyone wants a hand in and the fact the success doesn't come as quickly with building as it does with the memory of their glorious driving years... but in MS' case no one will come close so unless its a strange case of a connection to someone or something close, why should he? Money isn't an issue. Does he really care if someone else apart from Ralf wins a championship? I don't see MJ or Jack taking Lebron James or Tiger Woods under their wings and saying they'll be responsible for the paths of the new generation.

My guess is that with all that real estate in Swiss alps, all his trophies/money, and his family he fades away from center stage. I bet he'll consider a manager/agent role from time to time causing insane media hype, but nothing ever really solid. I am certain we will see more of him in charity soccer matches with Prince Albert (or is it King now?) or actually making an attempt to be part of a local second tier team than telling Kimi what sponorship deals to sign or rebuilding a Minardi like team.

RocketBoy

 

Not exactly the same town. Michael and Ralf are from Kerpen, Germany about 40-50Km from Monchengladbach, Germany where HHF, NH, Corina, and yours truly were all born.

As for Michael after he gets out of F1??? he can do whatever he feels like doing, It is not for us to say what he will be doing.

 

It is always good to see MS in F1. what i like most about MS is that he is very positive and very happy. I hope he stays around F1 and enjoy such a great motorsport for long time.

 

He's been doing this for like 30 years, you would think that when he retires he'd go learn how to fly a helicopter, man a sailboat, or play pinochle. Kind of a one-sided life to this point since he has had to be so committed to racing in order to be successful. Might be interesting to try something else with the second half of his life.

 

Who cares ... we like MS because of his on the track efforts, that is all.

We do not even know the actual guy, thus MS off the track has absolutely NO interest to us all ... if we were really honest.

Why people pretend to get so close to sports stars is beyong me ... even complete @rseholes of people we still praise because they can play a sport better than we can.

I'm sure MS is a nice guy and all, but once he leaves the track ... well my interest is over. MS to me is a racing driver and I atleast do not go silly over sports people because I can separate the person and the sports player.

Pete

 

I also remember him saying after F1 it's over. I don't think we'll see him in too many other races after that. As far as managing anything, highly doubtful too, unless he gets bored and misses the sport. Only time will tell.

 

Micheal Andretti. Won championships as a driver and as an owner. And now won Indy as an owner. Bobby Rahal's team is still pretty good and he was a damned good driver as well. Roger Penske was a good driver in his day from what i've read as well but he stopped in order to pursue business. As a car owner his record stands for itself. It must be easier in the IRL, lol

In champcars Paul Gentilozzi was a higly sucessful Trans Am champion now running a champcar team with some success. We'll see how it goes for him. He was also one of the people that helped to save champcar. There are few drivers that have made a sucessful transition but i don't know if it's ever happened in F1. Bruce McLaren i'd guess.

 

Uhm: Enzo Ferrari!? Jack Brabham and Bruce McLaren did a pretty swell job as well.

Edit: Roger Penske, Carroll Shelby, Bobby Rahal .. the more I think of it, the longer the list gets.

 

I don't think we will see MS racing seriously in any other series... I think he is all about F1 and I think he loves the competition, whether it be on track as a driver or involved another way in F1.

I think he will end up, in the future, in Todt's role. Probably will stay with the Scuderia in some other role and eventually graduate to team manager.

 

Where do you guys get this completely false idea that Enzo Ferrari was a success as a race driver?.

By his OWN admission he was useless ... read some biographies, etc.

Also he only really played at it and as soon as he could get out of the car and make others drive, he did. Thus you cannot really talk about Enzo as a racing driver, he dabbled at it and did not have what it takes.


Both Jack and Bruce were engineers before they ever went racing, thus the engineer in them drove the team. This was a long time ago and is an era where the boss was heavily involved in designing the cars ... thus leading by example. Nowadays is completely different and the skill set required is different ...

But ofcourse there are always special people that can make it happen, but not many. Thus I have to agree that the norm is that a driver does not make a good team manager. There have been exceptions, but very few.

Pete

 

To be a successful f1 driver you need to have gobs of determination, skill and ruthless self-centeredness to make sure everything around you is focussed on helping you do your best.

Its these elements that makes a good driver a poor manager because you have a) deal with people b) delegate work to others c) control the urge to get into the car and figure out really what the drivers are complaining about

I personally think Michael will retire from racing for good. I think he will still do some charity for UN like he does today. He would like to spend at least 5 years or more enjoying watching his kids grow up on a full-time basis.