Was He The Greatest?

[Leewah]

With his racing career now over, was Michael Schumacher the greatest person to pilot a F1 car?

7 World Championships

91 race wins

68 pole positions

Was it MS who did all the hard yards or was it the team around him and his car? Some may argue that he took the core of his Benetton team over to Ferrari and continued the sucesses he had previously just under a different banner.

It takes a great driver to win world championships, but this really is a team sport and having the best team will most likely eventuate in the best results. When driving for Benetton and winning 2 world championships, his teammate Johnny Herbert also finshed well. Driving for Ferrari, Rubens Barichello was always very close behind. Does this mean that the car itself was what propelled MS to great success?

One only needs to look at MotoGP to see what I'm referring to. Valantino Rossi, 5 time world champion rides the same Yamaha as his teammate who never even looks like challenging for the win. Only people like Sete Gibernau and Nicky Hayden (this year) give Rossi a run for his money and they are on superior bikes.

As a driver, MS was a genius in action. He had a different style to previous champions but there was still the aura around him like he was untouchable. Reminiscent of his predecessors like late great Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Juan Manuel Fangio. He was a tactician and like other champions in their sport (like Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan), could change up a gear and do things which didn't seem possible. A thing of beauty to watch on tv and in person.

His personality though detracted from his success. To me he just seemed arrogant. He was good and he knew it. Only in the last 12 months did it seem he became more humble when Alsono won the championship last year and he knew he was faced with a real challenge this year. To me, that was a more pleasing MS to watch. One who faced challenges head on rather than sitting on his stool ontop of the mountain and look down on everyone.

MS will be missed as a driver and competitor. Will Ferrari still be as great without MS at the wheel? What will his future role in Ferrari be? Who will take the reigns as the next dominating champion?

Your thoughts?

I guess time will see.

[Jimbo2000]

simple answer

probably yes

[sav man]

I rate Senna higher than Schumacher. The ability to form a team around you is a skill in it's self. he didn't walk into a good team in Ferrari, he brought his Benetton buddies over and made a new team.

[JVP]

yes, in my eyes he was.

but, some of the stuff he has done to other drivers is really un-sportsman like.

that will be the thing that people will look back on.

but i absolutley loved him. excellent driver and the upmost professional.

to win 7 world championships is a feat that i dont think anyone will match for a long time.

it was sad to see them change the rules, i reckon he would have won another world title no doubt.

will look forward to the Massa-Raikkonen partnership at ferrari now.

my thoughts.

cheers

[MFC05]

yes, in my eyes he was.

but, some of the stuff he has done to other drivers is really un-sportsman like.

that will be the thing that people will look back on.

but i absolutley loved him. excellent driver and the upmost professional.

to win 7 world championships is a feat that i dont think anyone will match for a long time.

it was sad to see them change the rules, i reckon he would have won another world title no doubt.

will look forward to the Massa-Raikkonen partnership at ferrari now.

my thoughts.

cheers

I just started getting into F1 Racing, yeh i kept on hearing about other stuff MS has being to other drivers to win races, whats that all about what was he doing that was that bad ?

[JVP]

crashing into other drivers (damon hill for example) to try and stop him from winning the championship.....

i have an article somewhere but i cant find it....

he had all his points taken off one year for doing something stoopid.

but if you take all that away from schumi, he was probably one of the greatest F1 driver ever.

[Wink]

Statistically Yes

Sentimentally No

[Nismo Racer]

Yes he is

[floody]

No.

I think there have been plenty of better drivers. I also think the quality of competition has been lower and the cars have been better than ever.

Anyway, IMO, F1 is motorsport's answer to WWF.

[Leewah]

My thoughts exactly.

MS wasn't the only one though who used "unsportsman like" tactics to win championships. Senna did it to Prost in Japan too but for some reason, I still rate Senna higher.

Statistically Yes

Sentimentally No

[JVP]

Anyway, IMO, F1 is motorsport's answer to WWF.

how so?

[mad082]

i view MS as someone that won because he had more money to spend on developement than most others. sure its easy to win when you have the bigest bank balance.

and if something didn't go ferrari's way they would bitch and winge to the officials till someone got penalised for it. (a bit like skaife)

and he was a dirty driver at times.

[djr81]

MS will be missed as a driver and competitor.

No by me he won't.

Will Ferrari still be as great without MS at the wheel?

Ferrari will undoubtedly outlast Schumacher. Through their whole time in F1 they have always been more important than the dirvers whom they employed. The bloke replacing him is an better driver in any case.

What will his future role in Ferrari be?

hopefully, none.

Who will take the reigns as the next dominating champion?

The present dominating world champion.

Your thoughts?

Don't much care if the door does hit him in the arse on the way out....

[kralster]

Sete Gibernau has barely challenged Rossi this year.

It's all been Nicky Hayden, Loris Carpirossi, Danni Pedrossa.

Rossi's bike is excellent this year. Very comparable to the Honda's, and ducati's.

[Topaz]

I barracked for the likes of Hill, Villeneuve & Hakkinen. I think it was the car in most of the circumstances, look at Ferrari's results from 2005.....

Also the performances from his team mates over the years compared to what teams they've come from and where they went after Ferrari also indicates Ferrari's car/team was just a superior allrounder to the other teams.

[andylaurel]

No.

I think there have been plenty of better drivers. I also think the quality of competition has been lower and the cars have been better than ever.

Anyway, IMO, F1 is motorsport's answer to WWF.

your a tool mate

you couldnt drive a greasy finger up your own asshole.

Anyone who watched the race last night witnessed the brilliance that was Michael Schumacher.

Starting from 10th on the grid, after qualifying poorly with a fuel pressure problem, he was challenging for 3rd after only 4 laps.

After a brilliant dive under brakes to overtake Fisichella, he burst his rear left tyre and was forced to tour an ENTIRE LAP at half speed and lost 70 seconds.

He then proceeded to lap in the 12.3's consistantly (faster than race winner Massa) to claw back to withing 7 seconds of the podium.

Did any of you ^^^^ even watch the race?

[Paradizzle]

Easily one of the greatest drivers ever, how could you possibly say he is not. Many have raced along side MS at Ferrari, and MS has always made his team mate look second class. 91 race wins, 7 world championships speaks for itself.... to all those saying he isnt a 'good driver' you are complete imbeciles.

[JVP]

Michael Schumachers naughties:

1980: Stripped of crucial victory in an F3 for an illegal engine. parked his crashed car on the circuit to stop race

1994: rammed damon hill in season finale to win his first title.

1994: stripped of victory in belgium for an illegal undertray

1994: benetton dogged by rival team claims of an illegal TRC system

1995: two race ban for ignoring the black flag at the british grand prix

1997: stripped of second place in the championship for ramming jacques villeneuve in the season finale

2001: criticised when rubens barrichello ordered to surrender second place at the austrian grand prix

2002: ferrari fined $1m for ordering rubens barrichello to surrender in austria

2006: schumacher stripped of pole for blatantly parking his car on the racing line at monaco

he is still a champ in my eyes.

[djr81]

Easily one of the greatest drivers ever, how could you possibly say he is not. Many have raced along side MS at Ferrari, and MS has always made his team mate look second class. 91 race wins, 7 world championships speaks for itself.... to all those saying he isnt a 'good driver' you are complete imbeciles.

How could you say he is not? Easy. Just include in the measure of greatness the requirement for even the slightest bit of integrity.

More often than not he team mate was second rate. More often than not his team mate was contractually obliged to be second rate. Remember how close Irvine came to being world champion when Schumacher broke his leg? And how easily Mika Salo hosed Irvine?

[JVP]

shumachers highs

Titles: Seven (1994, 1995, 2000-2004)

Longest reign as champ: Four years, 11 months and 17 days

Most Wins: 91

Most pole positions: 68

Most wins in a season: 13 (2004)

Succesive wins in a season: 7 (2004)

Most Second places: 43

most fastest race laps: 75

Most races led: 141

most laps in the lead: 5096

most points: 1286

most points in a single season: 148 (2004)

most succesive seasons with a win: 15

most podiums: 154

most wins at the same grand prix: 8 (france)

most sucessive races in the points: 24 (2001-2003)

Most sucessive podiums: 19 (2001-2002) schumacher is the only driver to finish an entire season on the podium (2002)

biggest winning points margin: 67 (2002)

Fastest title: 2002. won in july at the french grand prix with 6 of 17 races left

nuff said i think.....