From Autosport.com Ferrari define Schumacher's role By Michele Lostia and Pablo Elizalde Friday, January 11th 2008, 13:45 GMT Michael Schumacher says he and Ferrari have finally decided what his role at the Italian squad will be following his retirement from racing. The seven-time world champion, who stopped racing at the end of 2006, will be in charge of developing cars for Gestione Sportiva - Ferrari's motor racing division. Schumacher has tested for Ferrari a few times since he retired, and the German says he will do it again in order to help the Italian squad with their new F1 car. "It took us a bit of time to establish, but now my role inside Ferrari is clear: we had to understand where my presence would be most useful," Schumacher was quoted as saying by Gazzetta dello Sport. "I deal with the development of the car inside Gestione Sportiva. "We haven't yet scheduled the days when I'll drive the car, nothing's decided. We'll evaluate depending on the situations: if the team need me to, I'd like to drive, but not too often. "The F2008? The car is promising, but it is not yet in its definitive configuration. To give a more grounded opinion we'll have to see what our rivals have done."
Isn't being a test driver inherently dangerous? It's one thing to hop in a car every once and a while but to make it a somewhat defined role I think isn't a good move for him. He's got nothing to prove and his family comes first. JMO.
I think at this point, driving a two lane road in Switzerland or Germany is more dangerous. Especially of some former F1 pilot takes over as a taxi driver.
Fastest? That's up for a heated debate. Driver with the most wins and championships, yes. Fastest? Hardly.
Well, off the Top of my head I'd say Senna or Prost. Both did heavy testing in their day, and without any data acquisition to help them out. Throw Kimi and Alonso in there as well. If you have a race driver that's also carrying out testing he's also a test driver. Just because he does both doesn't mean he is only one or the other.
Why would it even matter? Test drivers have to be able to sense the car & interact with the techs, not set the fastest lap per se. MS was very well proven in this role at Ferrari before; he was supposed to be a very hard worker in car development.
I don't think any of the drivers you mentioned ever worked as strictly a test driver. Most full time F1 drivers test off season. I think the original point is that MS is going to be a full time development guy for Ferrari. And in that venue, I would agree he is the fastest, certainly faster than all of the drivers you mentioned, except MAYBE Senna, and there is now way we will ever know for sure about that.
better dig a little deeper into your head. calling senna faster than micheal would require you to redefine "fastest". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastest_lap
Senna isn't even in the top 10, wow. That really surprises me. P.S. Turns out he has 19 fastest laps, compared to 65 pole positions.
Fastest laps are not indicative of overall speed. Races are run over a two hour period and overall pace is what's needed in a race. You also need to remember Senna raced during a period where there was no refueling during a race and you had to use your head in how finish and win. Pole positions are a better barometer of outright speed. Take a look at the % of pole positions to total number of races a driver had run and then tell me who was the fastest.
fastest to me means the guy who gets around the track the fastest. or possibly top speed. pace is more of a consistency thing. The way pole positions are determined changes periodically and are not during the race. like i said, depends on what is is. for me, the guy that gets around the track the fastest is the fastest. The guy who has the best pace is the winner. pretty sure micheal has senna beat there too. congrats on finding one stat that you can hang you're hat on. I still say micheal was "fastest". although i think kimi is pretty darn "fast" too.
Interesting link - check out the top 10 listed for fastest motorcycle laps in the link. In particular, Mike Hailwood and John Surtees. Mark
Pole position is solely about the guy who can get around the track the fastest. That's all it is. Show me one Fastest Race lap that beats the qualifying pole position time for the same race. Who is it that gets around the track fastest? The guy who gets pole. Period. Good thinking! I'd forgotten about the fact that he hadn't run that many races. Although they didn't really test back then. Given your insight I did a quick and dirty list: .....Name......#Races...Poles..... % of poles to races 1) Fangio.......51..........27........53% 2) Jim Clark....72..........32........44% 3) A. Senna...162.........65........40% 4) Schumi......250.........68........27% 5) A. Prost.....200.........33........17% 6) Alonso.......105........17.........16% 6) D. Hill........122........20.........16% (both Alonso and Hill have a 18% ratio of wins to Mikas 12% so I ranked them above him) 6) Mika H.......165........26.........16% 7) Niki Lauda..173........24.........14% 8) M. Anretti..129........18.........14%
I'll also add that since the both Senna and prost were in equal equipment for two years battling it out I'd say both of their achievements speak to their speed. If either one had had a clause in their McLaren contract that MS had in his their total Pole position numbers would be much higher. But thankfully they were allowed to race against each other and we got to see some epic battles because of it. Otherwise those years would have been a snooze fest.
Its almost impossible to compare Fangio to Senna, two completely different eras. I think it can be easily said that Senna is a better pole-getter than Schumacher, and the greatest pole-getter in recent years. Then again, you race for the win and pole really doesn't mean squat.
There are factors far beyond sheer speed you guys arent considering. In Fangios day the cars cornered at well below 1g, so you basically just went along for the ride. This is not to say the driving was not hard, but his head was certainly not being ripped off in the turns, his body pulled hard into the side of the cockpit, feet weighing 4 times thier weight sideways, and over 3g's braking power. Fangio was a good driver, but smoking and drinking and partying were a much normal day to day existence back then than running and playing soccer were for Shumi. I would guess that even between Senna's era and Shumis last days racing, the cars gained even more performance to make the loads even harder to handle. Does not anyone recall Shumi practicing with heavy weights stuck to his helmet? He even admitted it was hard and that he was having dificulty, yet NOBODY ever looked as fresh after a race than Shumi did, NOBODY. Fresh as a daisy. I heard that so many times after he finished races, it was truly facinating. And that race in the rain, Malaysia IIRC, absolutely stunning.
I don't think so. One of the reasons Schu is so highly regarded at Ferrari is because he was so integral to the development of the car. While he may no longer lead the team to victories from behind the wheel, he certainly can provide them with a great advantage by ensuring the car is superior to any other team's vehicle. I think this makes a ton of sense, versus sticking him into some empty suit position as a reward for his years with Ferrari. Great move by Schu and Ferrari.
