Schumacher On Being The Number One Driver

oh well, some get it!

 

Martin, it's crap ass racing. Sucks all the sport out of it. If i wanna see a staged event i'll watch pro wrestling. How would you feel if you were RB and were made to move over for someone you had beat all day.

 

i agree with Luis, that was the most silliest thing i've ever seen in F1, let alone embarrasing from what it's been a call from the biggest, most successfull, and glamorous team of F1.

 

Rubens should feel just fine. He signed a contract knowing fully that he would be the SECOND driver to SUPPORT Michael, he admitted this himself. If he does feel bad, he can try and use some of those millions of dollars he's made to make himself feel better. I'm not saying I agree with these decisions, just that I understand them. Also, one team or driver shouldn't be slammed harder than any other for using them, when everyone else has aswell.

 

They get slammed when as a team (Constructor) they are so above the rest competitively that it is a disservice to the sport. And although many may not agree, F1 is still a sport. At least make it look like a race.

 

Well said!

Pete

 

Yeah but is it really Ferrai's fault that they were so far ahead? It could be argued that it's the fault of other teams for not being competitive. As you know, Ferrari wasn't always dominant. I mean what's the alternative? The FIA stepping in and penalizing Ferrari back in 03 or 04 for winning too much?

 

Supporting Michael doesn't mean kissing his ass. I'm sure the contract didn't any anything about that. Moving over for no damned reason for your teammate that has a huge lead in the championship and helping your teammate win the title when he's in a close fight are two different things. As you stated no one, including yourself, liked the move, and it was badly pulled off. There was no reason to do it anyway.

 

that instance (and a few others, not just regarding Ferrari) made me speculate about the whole 'money, and marketing' gib. there was no need from a 'sport' or racing pt of view. i suspect that michael winning another simply helps solidify the bottom line...in case it wasn't already fat enough...

 

Michael denied it. Rubens signed the contract knowing he would be the supporting driver. So Ferrari demanded Rubens to support Michael?

 

Well which other driver was there that day????

 

agree with you! Although it is done all the time, the way they did it was really bad.

 

Yes there was a reason. See all my points prior. You are looking back into time but on the day at the hour, at that moment you have to make a decision without knowing you are going to win the Championship, without knowing if you develop or not a engine problem that will not let the car finish in the next 5 races, etc etc.
Of course you know all these things TODAY but at that very moment you did not!

As such, again, I agree with you, badly pulled of and yes, a disservice to the sport, yet the decision was the right one!

 

He has a choice. If he did not like it, felt he was better than that he could have stayed on the gas and made his point, get fired for disobeying team orders and looked for another ride.
He chose to stay, not just that season but two more, so it does not matter how I feel but how he felt and by the consequences he took it could not have been that bad!

 

Besides, and this is opening another flame war:

Rubens got the message to let Michael by 2 laps prior to the end. Instead of slowly decreasing speed to make it look like a technical problem, he stayed in the gas into the last corner and then almost came to a stop waiting for Michael.

So as far as a disservice, that was done by Rubens, not by Michael not by the team. Team orders exist and have been used since day 1 in Formula 1 and other venues as well (Indy comes to mind, NASCAR is one of the biggest ones). Like it or not! The execution of that team order was RB and it was all him!

 

I understand RB didn't answer the radio when he was told to let Michael by. Jean Todt was pleading with him on the radio to follow the order. Can anyone really blame him for wanting the world to know who really won on that day? I would have done the same.

 

Martin,
By the time of the Austrian GP Michael had a 21 point lead over Montoya, who I think, was second in the points. Someone correct me if i'm wrong. The Williams was no real threat that year for the title and the McLaren was nowhere as well. Rubens had only 6 points at the time due to a DNS the race before in Spain and 3 straight retirements in the first 3 races. Not exactly a threat to Michael either.

Luis

 

Rubens should have been a man and told the Todt to fnck off ... and won the race. He could have done this in such a way so that everybody was aware that the team was trying to fnck with him, by slowing like he did on the last lap ... and then going 'Nah' and accelerating over the line to just beat MS.

Ferrari would have had a huge wobble ... but the rest of the world would have cheared him for weeks afterwards. Heck in the end Ferrari would have ended up with a better driver, a driver with balls.

If they didn't like it other teams would have queued up because we all witnessed a 100% thrashing of MS that day ... and that does not happen often!

Instead he just bent further over and became a complete sap ... and basically killed his own career

Pete

 

Best example was Rene Arnoux at the French GP in 82, the team wanted him to slow down and hand the race to Prost, he said "F" that and he became a greater hero in France and went to Ferrari in 83.

Carlos Reuteman did the same in 1981 to Jones and as a result he was shut out by the team for the remainder of the season, had the team backed him up he should have been WC in 81 instead of bending over in Vegas at the last race and throwing the race away from Pole (even with Piquet sick and weak in the next car).

 

Guys, i really hope to see the end of this thread. we're all arguing over the same points over and over again. lemme get this straight. what Ferrari did was plain wrong and stupid.

yes, team orders must be needed. it's all part of the sport, and part of being team. but, Ferrari chose to use it at the wrong time and place. it's plain silly and embarrasing. i blame everyone in this incident.

1) Ferrari got this whole thing wrong. MS didn't need that 10 points, and Rubens drove like a champ that whole afternoon. silly call from the scuderia.

2) Michael. he was the only person in the position to reverse the decision. but of course, knowing MS how hard is he do give up a win, he chose not to. bad choice from a 4 time champion at that year.

3) Rubens. yes, he drove an amazing race, but it was all in the contract that he's gonna play 2nd fiddle to MS. he should be ready and prepared to give the lead to his teammate anytime. but it was stupid of him to do it at the last corner, the main straight in protest against his team. if i was a team boss, i MIGHT have sacked rubens, not for violating anything, but he critised the team in the public indirectly, which is very wrong. i'm saying this by looking at it at a business point of view.


having said all that, i really hope this will put and end to it, before we start calling each other names and losing respect for one another. cheers guys!

 

Well said Brian. There would be no need to start name calling. This is a good debate and i'm enjoying it. Agreed on all points....

 

Thanx Luis. this was a good thread. but towards the end, we're debating the same points, over n over again. thats where i saw it was heading no where. we all know and agree with each other points. so good stuff anyways. do continue ur excellent posts.

 

To think that Schumacher never demanded #1 status sounds to me like pure folly. According to BusinessF1 Magazine, Schumacher successfully fought to keep Hakkinan out of the team and unsuccessfully fought to keep Raikkanan out of the team. I also recall hearing that Schumacher was contractually guaranteed usage of the team's spare car at every Grand Prix. Every teammate he had at Ferrari reported in interviews that their contracts relegated them the #2 status. So maybe Schumi's contract didn't say he had #1 status but all his teammates' contracts said they had #2 status?!?

I think Schumacher is lying.

 

Yep!

MS is doing himself no favours in trying to retro-improve his image. As I said (on this site) many, many years ago, once he has retired and particularly when he has grand kids, he will be very sorry about the lying and cheating that cloud his career.

I'm all for the 150% racer that he was, but not the lying to hide the cheating.

When he drove into Hill, and then Villeneuve he should have had the balls to say 'what the heck would you have done? ... you want something so bad, and then see it slipping away, heck I'm sorry for what I did but the WC just means so much to me'. Many sports people would have understood.

When he punted Frentzen off at Montreal, he should have simply said 'Frentzen is just so slow that the very last thing any driver, with the possibility of winning a race, wants is to be stuck behind him ... so I tried to block him'.

When he let RB gift him a win, he should have said 'Ferrari area 100% behind me, and we are only here to win ... if you do not like that tough ****'

When he parked his Ferrari at Monaco (he should never, ever have done this ... lost a heck of a lot of my support for this act of stupidity), he should have said 'That was my protest at the stupid rules of the sport'

Senna was just as much of a bastard (atleast) in a race car, but the difference was he never lied, he just told it like it was, and basically said up yours to F1 and other drivers, fans, etc.

I do wonder how much of MS's moves were part of Todt's plan though ... MS is a simple guy, and appears to not have the intellect to think through the end results of his actions, thus if Todt told him to jump to the left ... I think he would have simple jumped as high as he could to the left!

Honesty really is the best policy, and to lie well requires massive intellect but 99% of times it sh!ts back on ya.
Pete

 

Wow what a post. Excellent. I think the point about Todt is correct as well.