I think so too. Renault won't have the Driver yet in Hekki, and Fisi doesn't have it. McLaren is a dark horse, but I think without a top designer and aero guys its going to be a big problem. What if Ferrari announces Michael and Massa for next year, than we can expect Alonso and Kimi at McLaren which would be awesome as well.
It doesn't work well in that area. Trust me, I know. If Michael stays at Ferrari, he'll get his 8th title. But I don't see him staying.
Im with Frank. Good riddance to the cheater. There is a big difference in pushing the rules to the limit and putting forth everything you can to win and crossing the line to doing dangerous stuff or directly undercutting your competitors efforts. MS wrecking others on purpose to further his own points standings.... the actions of someone who is simply of very poor moral character. Yes, Senna did it as well and I say the same of him. Neither is fit to hold the jock strap of racers like Moss, Clark, Fangio, Gurney and many others. MS actions earlier this year to deliberatly sabatoge others qualifying efforts were pathetic. If you have to resort to such tactics in order to win, its not worth it. Time to quit. Perhaps MS has finally figured this out. Yea, Schumacher holds all the records and such but in my book he is not a great champion. It takes more than just stats. "Great" goes deeper than simply winning at any cost using any tactic or strategy. The way I look at it.... if you took Clark and put him todays cars and gave him time to get up to speed on the tech and such, he would win. If you put Schumacher in a Lotus 25 and set him to racing in 1963, he would be dead. He wouldnt survive a single season. Terry
I can seriously predict that Schumi will retire at Monza -- two or three times, ... ... possibly more if they need to change from wets to dry tires. Only in 2005 were people not supposed to re-tire.
I hope MS doesn't retire; I hope he wins this year and next year as well. Would love to see him get 100 wins; however I think he'll retire and we'll see KR @ Ferrari. Anyway, why would Kimi stay at McLaren? I'd much rather drive for Adrian Newey, the real brains behind McLaren, than for Ron Dennis.
I hate to see him go. I admire his skill and ability to drive in the rain. He pushes the car to the max. all the time. When Ferrari needed a win , he gave it to them. He would run hard and make up time in a non mortal way at times. He is the best. I think calling him a cheat is a harsh judgement. It's a lot easier to sit on the couch and replay and event over and over and then pull a monday morning quaterback move out for the public to see. He made a lot of decisions traveling at Mach 1 with his hair on fire.
http://www.tsn.ca/auto_racing/news_story/?ID=176660&hubname= more news on him announcing his retirement at this weekends GP!!!
It's not happening for him at McLaren-- the cars are either slow, unreliable or late to arrive. I'm sure Kimi in anxious to move on, how many times have we seen him smash the steering wheel of a smoking McLaren in total frustration?
In 1986 during a tour of the Porsche factory there BEER vending machine in the assembly area. I was taking European delivery of a Porsche. Beer is not such a big deal in Germany. I believe they have stricter DUI limits though. stephen
I never saw him.... Theres no way. Just no way he can actually quit. Its been 16 years, hes still fast, still loves it, I think. Just cant believe it. Between me and everyone on FChat, after I read this, I cried in the shower. I just cant believe it. I almost dont want to watch F1 when hes gone. Just not F1. Its just the fastest advertisement billboards in the world when hes not there.
LoL...relax dude. like it or not, MS will retire one day, even if it's not this sunday. but there's always someone waiting in the wings. someone perhaps more exciting than schumi himself. we'll never know. time will tell. it's a whole total diff era the day schumi retires. i just hope he goes for 1 more season at least, so that i can get a close shot of him at the malaysian Gp next season, if i manage to buy those grandstand tix.
Bild may be just taking a wild shot with their statement in the hopes that they are correct and look like they got the scoop first. We'll see.
Perhaps MS doesn't want Kimi to go to Ferrari at all, regardless of whether MS is still with the team for fear of Kimi winning a few WDCs with the Scuderia and casting doubt on the supremacy of the all-mighty Spoonface. The only time I ever saw him race was at the 1996 British GP; Ferrari was having some major problems that year and his car broke on him really early in the race. There were a lot of single finger salutes being thrown his way from Club Corner; seems people had not quite forgotten about his incident with Damon Hill at Adelaide in '94. I had also watched the '96 French GP at a pub in Oxford when Schumacher's engine blew on the parade lap; I damn near had beer come out my nose.
Bild definitely blew it with the Flavio retirement story. Apparently ESPN has reported he's retiring via info from Bild. It's amazing what journalists do to attempt to make a name for themselves by proclaming something before it's factual. The news of Heikki signing with Renault certainly fielded the fact that there would be a Finn signing with Renault. It seems the consensus of many folks here think he's washed up and needs to go away. He's in better shape, loves what he does. Who's to say that some of the things that occurred in the last couple races didn't occur for a reason - a reason to make for "more excitement", "more news/gossip", "more attention to F1 admist all it's problems". Perhaps there's an F1 script to this story. We'll all know in due time. Carol
i'm getting pretty irratated with all those ' schumi set to retire ' all over my local dailies. why can't ppl just wait till monza? instead of speculating and making money for themselves. oh yea. funny. just after schumi's superb drives at INdy and France, everyone says that a 2 yr extension deal is a done thing. now after 2 poor race performance, ' schumi set to retire '. i just hope schumi just announces that he intends to continue, and surprises everyone. it's like a slap on the face for those who claims he'll retire.
All these people that put Schumacher down as a cheat, alot of times gloss over the exploits of Senna and say what a great racer/champion he was.Yet 10, 20 years down the road will themselves tell tales of how they witnessed the greatest driver of our generation race. I'm sure even Senna saw the writing on the wall when Michael came on the scene.
Two threads, eight pages on MS retiriing. Half the posts become who was the best ever. The argument can't be won. We can only have opinions. Watch in car cam shots of MS at his best. Others fighting the wheel. MS would make it look like a drive down the freeway. Smoothest hands I have ever seen. But we have no in car feed of Fangio, Clark or GV. My personal favorite will always be Senna because of the emotion he drove with and lived his life with. Just the kind of people I like. My Opinion. Kimi to Ferrari and I may have a new hero.
Do not worry, he did not cheat. People who dislike him often confuse mistakes, competitve, split-second judgments and strategies as cheating. Some of his actions were penalized, but not many over his long career.
A long time ago there was a thread, "Where Should Kimi Go". After 3 pages of speculation of his racing future someone, (Big Al?), said TOASTMASTERS.
