The story behind Michael Schumacher's retirement

Reading that makes it hard for me to enjoy F1 as a racing sport.

 

Fantastic article typical of a tremendous magazine

I was given a couple of copies and decided to subscribe until I discovered it was £ 25 / $ 45 per copy not per year !

 

i never knew there was an business F1 mag.

 

that was a seriously interesting article. i never knew there was so much of tension between Todt and Monty.

 

As much as I want to hate/blame Monty for all of this, it pains me to say that all Shuey had to do is just be on the same team as Kimi – if racing in F-1 and being in a Ferrari really meant as much to him as it was supposed to have, he would have had the balls to have Kimi as a team mate. He could have stuck it to both Monty AND Kimi by just winning next year.

But Monty IS a cry-baby, insecure, ego maniac to force out the greatest contemporary driver and fan-favorite just to win ******-measuring contest against Todt. Talk about winning the battle and losing the war...

And now, this article makes me even wonder about the atypical engine failure that cost Shuey the championship – could Monty have been that desperate to screw with Michael?

 

There may have been some truth in this article but Michael, if he really wanted to stay in F1 had the opportunity to get a seat in the Renault or even in the Mac whenever he wanted.
He didn't, then...

 

Bear in mind that Business F1 magazine has been sued successfully over a number of stories they've printed and that the man behind it is Tom Rubython (formerly of F1 magazine and Senna biography). Note too, that some of the "facts" in the article do not tie up with known facts stated elsewhere. In other words, do not necessarily believe everything you read...

Jonathan

 

Wow, I just read the entire article. What a story.

To add to this, I heard that Luca wants to run for President of Italy and that would make Todt President of Ferrari... any truth to that?

 

no. Michael would never leave Ferrari for another team. i'm not sure if this is true, but he got an offer to drive for BMW, 1 Billion US or something? so money isn't the issue.

as certain part of the article pointed out..in Ferrari, they don't act like employees. they're like a part of a big family

 

A great read. Thanks for sharing the article. Is this the usual standard of BusinessF1?

 

I echo what JTremlett wrote.

This article is best read in association with reading this site.


http://www.businessf1.net/

 

I've just read the whole article...
My godness !!! This is full of BS. I love the author's redneck's comparison to "The Godfather III" (I'm still laughing).

It seems the guy who wrote this piece of sheet (of paper) is unable to run a business properly (all named "Business something" : very funny).

If this story was true we should have read about it in several newspapers, secret plots everywhere ? I don't think so. I'n not paranoïac.

 

Thank you James for taking the time to post this article. If anything it was interesting to read.

But........................................when I was in school, we were taught to footnote our sources. Seems like 99% of this article is based on hypothesis and the author surmising about the situation. Very little fact, mostly tabloid writing.

How did the author learn of the exact amounts of the various driver's retainers that are in contracts with non-disclose clauses?

Why would Todt, who is certainly wealthy in his own right, continue to work for Montezemelo under these conditions? Certainly he is marketable in various capacities.

Robertson was interviewed and actually quoted in F1 magazine, and his direct quotes would contradict some of the scenarios in this article. So why was Robertson not quoted directly here?

Too many questions, not enough substance. Does this guy work for Rupert Murdoch?

 

Well, reading that made me think that there is sometimes more action behind the scene than on the track!! But then, I'm a cynical old man!

Regarding Luca de Montezemolo's attitude; it doesn't surprise me at all: he almost emulates the late Enzo Ferrari, whom I admired.

LdM, like Ferrari himself, is the boss, and for him that means no decision can be contested. Typically Machiavelian, E.Ferrari used to rule his company by setting his collaborators, drivers against each other, in the belief that he could extract the best of them that way. Ferrari like LdM can lose an argument sometimes, but they are vindictive and will get their way in the end.

The idea of a start driver pulling up the team around him and getting the glory was abhorant to E.Ferrari too. MS riding on the crest of a wave and credited of having motivated Todt, Brown & Byrne to revive Ferrari's fortune, his alledged refusal to accept a top driver alongside him must have been unberable to suffer for de Montezemolo.
Enzo Ferrari himself did the same with Fangio and Surtees.
Fangio came at Ferrari having won 3 titles already, and brought new ideas, like the slick organisation he had witnessed at Mercedes-Benz, criticising some of the Ferrari team's practice. He won the WDC in 1956, only to be sacked by Ferrari.
Surtees had been courted by Ferrari since 1961, accepting the drive in 1963, to become their #1. He tried to introduce a testing programme like British teams did, and opiniated that the mixture of F1 and sportscars in the same organisation was incompatible, which displeased Ferrari. In spite of winning a WDC with Ferrari and several sportscar races, he was sacked mid-season in 1966.

It's an Italian team after all, run with passion, not logic.

 

MS himself said in the past that he will quit F1 when there will be a younger driver who is faster than him.

 

It's a nice article. It's just a shame that Business F1 has such a shoddy reputation so it's not possible to take it seriously.

Go here and type Rubython in the search box: http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_search.php

 

If that article is roughly how it happened, then MS comes off as a politically driven crybaby. Why was he so opposed to racing with strong teammates (and please don't tell me Massa/Barichello are as strong as Raikonnen/Hakkinen!)?

Every other character described in that article as being involved in the machinations was a team boss or a manager. MS was the *only* driver depicted to be actively involved in the political manipulations. Whether that was journalistic bias, I don't know, but it seems bad form for a great driver to need to have such petty control over the politics of his team.

 

As much as I hate to see MS retire, it is also undeniable that he is getting older and is approaching the end of his F1 racing career. He is still a driver that belongs to the top tier but he no longer dominates over FA or KR like he used to over his rivals on a consistant bases. Will he have as good if not better of a chance to win the 07' WDC? Yes, because if he had stayed, Ferrari would be the team with the least variables to deal with. However, Ferrari was also forced to look ahead into the future and with FA signed with McLaren, they had to make a move on KR ASAP.

If this article is an accurate account of what happened, then I think that MS and company could have made everything a lot easier by having KR along side him. Needless to say that KR will not want a #2 status as MS will not want to be #2 to KR, and rightfully so as they are both F1 racers. This is all assuming that KR and his agent did not demand #1 status as MS did back in 96'. Anyhow, IMO, they could have worked out a situation as they would be allowed to compete against each other until mid-season, and whoever is leading will have the #1 status for the reminder of the season (similar to what AP and AS had at McLaren). I for one would have loved to see MS and KR together as I am not sold on Massa's ability. It is true that Massa did improve as the season went on and he did win two races, however, I do not find his performance impressive as I feel that Ferrari had the better overall package than Renault by the end of the season.

A big part of me wanted MS to stay in Ferrari and F1 for as long as he wants to, but at the same time, I also appreciate and value athletics who retires with dignity (Marino with Dolphins, Kelly with Bills or Stockten with Jazz) instead of surfing around for that one last harrah (Montana at KC, Malone with Lakers, Jordan at Wizards, Barkley at Houston and Ewing at Seattle and Orlando).

 

Guess what folks...

The only people who know the real truths are the people directly involved. Everything else is just a good guess based on what people think they see or hear.

Interesting article though. I give it about 50% truth and 50% BS. To aplly what is what...well, I am guessing too.