Great avatar and great man. By far the greatest F1 driver of all time, as well as a gentleman. No parking on the track or crashing into competitors for Juan-Manuel... Just pure class.
Lets not forget that he won one title by using the car of his team mate. While that was legal back then, it is not the nicest thing to do.
Changing the rules willy-nilly never works and I tend to think that the less regulation the better. Trying to save someone from themselves is always a thankless endevour usually doomed to failure. Track design is one area that makes a huge difference, can be modified without relying on the individual teams to comply and can be done fairly quickly.
A free-market guy like myself. Ultimately what we like is innovation and competition, not contrived drama. I agree with the notion of modifying track design. Bahrain is a boring track, no way around it. I feel the same for Australia. I actually enjoy Malaysia and China (even if they don't turn on the sprinklers per Varsha ) so I'll just grin and bear it. I'm a nerd, so there is always something to keep my interest during the race; even if it is minutia.
Unfortunately there aren't enough fans like us to keep the sport alive. The casual fan needs more immediate gratification.
As great as MS is... I can't help but wonder how many additional championships Fangio would have had if he'd started racing at the highest level from his early 20s... It's not his fault they didn't even have an F1 championship until he was 37 (IIRC)!!! Take MS's career after the age of 37, then we have a true apples to apples comparison. Not to mention an accident like 99 in a 50s car would have been curtains for MS...and prevented him breaking all those records. In Fangio's time it was a victory just to SURVIVE until retirement age... Frank p.s. This is not to belittle MS's achievements. They are indeed staggering. However, the dangers of the 50s cars, allied to Fangio's advanced age when the F1 championship started are mitigating factors in a comparison. It is also much easier to rack up 91 victories when you have 16-19 races a year compared to 6-7 European F1 races per year...THREE TIMES more races!
Not really... presumably Fangio raced against men his own age and back then the forces exerted on the body were certainly not as great as today. Schumacher raced against men his own age and the G-forces the body is subjected to is much greater, requiring greater levels of fitness from the driver and so shifting the median age of the grid downwards to younger men who were fitter and could tolerate it. The number of race victories, given the longer calendars on the current circuit, might not be directly comparable between Fangio and Schumacher, but the number of titles certainly is - each would have had to win a similar proportion of the races and build a similar proportion of points in order to take the title. The fact that Schumacher is able to finish in the points at his age today with the injuries he's recovered from is practically a victory in itself. I've said it before, but I really think that as soon as he gets back into the swing of things and overcomes his race rustiness, we'll see him much more competitive. All the best, Andrew.
I agree with your points, and is precisely why it will always be an apples-to-oranges comparison... two totally different worlds...you must always take the dangers of the 50s cars into consideration. Today's cars are much safer and you can now take chances that would have been suicidal in the 50s cars. I remember reading that Fangio had many nightmares due to the reckless chances he took in his 57 Nurburgring race, chances that rightly should have seen him in a coffin... As far as age goes, Moss was a young, incredibly fit man and incredibly gifted driver and still couldn't topple the "Maestro". Collins was young as well... Frank p.s. With his physical conditioning allied to his motivation and great racing brain, I personally believe MS is the ONLY driver I can think of that would even be CAPABLE of winning 5 titles past the age of 37... I personally believe he wants to hit the magic 100 (victories)...
^^^ look at the post above. It will ALWAYS be an apples-to-oranges comparison. Two totally different eras; worlds apart. Frank
Why are you so eager to see him quit? As Bas posted on the other thread: Bas Jaski F1 Rookie Not Subscribed Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Europe Full Name: Bas Posts: 3,570 Quote: Originally Posted by Michael Schumacher (10th) "I could have had a good race today so it was a pity that I was hit right after the start. That incident decided my race obviously. But things like that happen and you have to just say 'that's racing'. I had to take the remainder of the race from last position but I have to say that I was still having fun as our pace today was promising and for part of the race, we were going quicker than the top group. It was nice to pick up a point and we can take that good feeling into the next race where we will look forward to another challenge." No excuses, so no moaning on the internets.
I'm not eager to see him quit at all. In fact I hope he hangs in there all season long. I'm merely pointing out that early retirement is in the cards.
