The difference between true champions

I too am referring to Hakkinen before his 95 Adelaide crash. Even before F1 actually. In speaking with Dick Bennets (Hakkinnens and Senna's team boss in F3) he told me of how Hakkinen was just mega fast but they had to almost force him to look at data to make the car better. He could not understand what the point was of heaping over data if he was already the quickest. That lack of obsessive work ethic carried into F1 and hurt him when the car was not at its best. Please lets remember that I am talking about small differences in margins of commitment among the finest drivers in the world however at that level the differences can become more apparent. In my mind Hakkinen was every bit Schumachers equal in a straight fight but lacked that little extra to have something in hand to make a fight unecessary in the first place.

 

Hakkinen was fast and deserved his first title. The second title he got a bit lucky.

The main difference between Hakkinen and Schumacher is, that MS was fast out of the box. He was fast at his very first Jordan test in Silverstone (the team was looking at his lap times and commented "he must be cutting corners"), he was fast in his first qualifying and the rest is history. Hakkinen on the contrary had almost 100 GPs to his name before he figured it out.

 

the unique difference between champion: the balls!

 

Not sure about that: Mansell only got the title once and Villeneuve never. And of today's drivers JPM probably has the biggest. Just watch the closing laps of Monza...

 

In the words of Fangio: 'I have known many drivers more courageous than me; they are all dead now'

Fact is that the great drivers have all been highly intelligent and applied that intelligence. Raw courage will only get you so far but it will never make you great.

 

Sounds like you just made a comment pro Alonso and contra Kimi.