The F1 season 2006

Well, for anyone who thought that the qualifying incident would reduce MSC's motivation and hasten his retirement how wrong he proved them to be. From the pit lane to 5th place on the most difficult overtaking circuit of the season. A stunning race that shows he's lost none of his talent and none of his hunger. Driver of the race, no question.

Michael.

 

Shot himself in the foot i feel. Could/would have won!

 

Yep. Almost certainly would have won easily even if he'd had to start from 2nd or 3rd.

 

An excellent race, but would have been much better had we had the two world championship contenders going for it at the front. Shame that Raikkonen and Webber both had car failure as we might have seen an exciting finish. Excellent performance from MSC to get back up to 5th starting from the pit lane. Had yesterdays incident not occurred, I think he'd have probably won.

From a championship perspective, the points margin between first and second will make things interesting. 21 point gap as of now, Schumacher could beat Alonso finishing in second for the next ten races and still not overhaul him.

Of course, reliability will come into play, and other drivers, but IMO there should be more of a points difference between 1st and second. 12 points for a win, 8 for second would be better IMO.

 

"Qualifying Incident" - oh you mean the "cheating"? He has a track record of it so its not really a surprise.

 

Soon as he did it I thought it was deliberate - whether it was Schumi's decision alone or the team.
If it was deliberate - so what, that kind of thing is a part of motorsport, especially at Monaco where pole is so important, remember Thierry Boutsen taking victory from pole to flag in his Williams ?
I am surprised the stewards were bold enough to penalise him for this as from now on if a driver makes a genuine error there will have to be an inquest as to the circumstances ?
Was also surprised that some of the F1 " community " were so quick to be quite so scathing, especially Keke ( just the one WDC ) Rosberg. Oh well everybody is entitled to an opinion.
Alonso was fortunate today that Raikkonen and Webber went out, although he may still have won, but Schumi was easily my Driver Of The Day - hope he wins at Silverstone !

 

I don't question MSC's driving ability, he got 5th the same way Colthard got 3rd, one stopping and with other drivers stopping. Why he felt he had to pull such a blantant stunt like that is anyone's guess, but with his track record it really wasn't a smart move.

He may have shown his ability and passion for the sport in the race but I think this cloud is likely to hang over him for a while now, it wouldn't surprise me if he retires at the end of this season.

Such a shame about Webber, he was really going for it, had really good pace, well I guess that's what you get for chucking a FORD in the back of your car

 

From the post-race press conference:

Nice one. I was pleased to see COU take a podium, he seems to be a nice bloke.

Personally, I can't see MSC parking his car deliberately. But in the long run, good and bad luck with stewards' decisions tends to even out, so I don't think anybody should lose much sleep over this. MAS had an unusually discreet race. he seeemed on better form the last few races, maybe he still felt cautious because of his quali accident.

Seeing that BAR had a heavy fuel load, kudos to him for qualifying where he did and for almost getting a podium. BUT had another bad week-end and seems to be making a habit of it. Not sure he has recovered from the engine blow-up in Adelaide. He may be taking too much weight on his shoulders as he seems to feel personally responsible for cheering the entire team up.

MOY took second place by default, basically. It looks like his car was so fast that even he couldn't screw the race up (can you tell I'm not a fan?). If McLaren still had hopes of keeping RAI, this race must have put paid to them.

FIS must feel ominous about his future at Renault; the only reason I can see for him staying with the team is that Renault may be wary of starting next season with two new drivers.

Good race by WEB, ROS and TRU, shame their cars didn't last.

All in all, a mildly entertaining GP but not the best race this season.

 

Typical blinkered Schumacher hater response . Even if it was deliberate (which I sincerely doubt) it's hardly cheating. Cheating requires pre-meditation and even Jackie Stewart reckons it was just an instinctive reaction to having cocked up the entry into the corner.

Michael.

 

I dont hate Michael Schumacher and there is nothing remotely blinkered about my response. I dont particularly like his methods. I am however very definitely more balanced in my assessment of him than your good self So if it was deliberate its still not cheating? Is in my books. But then thats half the problem. Not everybody uses the same book. Lets just say i wouldnt dream of doing that.

 

MSC is an excellent driver no doubt but is human too. Win at all cost's mentality is required to be the best but MSC desire/need to win sometimes clouds his judgement and He makes instintive mistakes. Senna and Prost at Japan was another example of this type of behaviour but i don't recall Senna ever being called a cheat?

 

To me things like running others off the track and crashing into people deliberately automatically preclude you from being called the 'best'. However thats my basic problem with the world. Most people just arent honest.

 

Cheating does NOT require premeditation.

Furthermore, Jackie Stewart said no such thing. He said that, in his view, Schumacher made a slight error on the corner and then decided to make the most of it. In other words, he cheated.

Other than the Ferrari people, not one professional or driver interviewed about the incident - and there were several - said or implied anything other than that Schumacher cheated. Were they all exhibiting a 'typical blinkered Schumacher hater response'?

Steve

 

"ya Baracello out qualified Button again, button not happy with his setup?" Lee

Not just a qualifying weekend to forget but a race as well!

A great drive by MSC. Renault won with with the 4th fastest car! Although it was pretty close at the front.

Back to normal at Silverstone.

Ian

 

That's not true. Hardly anyone used the word cheat. Most thought he'd done it deliberately, but that's not the same as saying he cheated.

I didn't hear this myself but I saw it reported on another forum that Anthony Davidson who was commenting on qualifying on Radio 5, on seeing Schumacher stopping in qualifying reacted immediately with something like: "what a clever move, another example of the way Schumacher thinks outside of the box".

In other words, he thought he did it deliberately and thought there was nothing wrong with it. I too don't see anything wrong with doing it deliberately. As Paul Ranson said over on PFM, cheating in F1 is running a 3.0L engine when the rules say 2.4L or running traction control when it's banned. This was just making the most of an opportunity (as were Adelaide '94 and Jerez '97 IMO - I wouldn't regard either as cheating).

Michael.

 

Keke Rosberg used the word cheat. He was quite scathing in his attack.

P.S. Max Mosely's coment from BBC's web site:-

Mosley said: "I would not go as far as to say it was cheating."

 

I said 'hardly anyone' used the word cheat ...and who really cares about Keke's opinion? He's possibly the least deserving driver ever to win the championship (he won just a single race).

 

I agree, and thanks for reminding me how to spell his name. I'll correct it now.

 

Interesting poll on the ITV F1 site:

Surprising for a UK site where opinion tends to be more anti-Schumacher than elsewhere.

Michael.

 

Dear Michael:

For once I must disagree with you. I did not watch the qualifying, and read or heard nothing about it. I went to one of my brothers' to watch the race. When I came in, he told me: 'Have you seem the awful behaviour of your Schumacher?' He then proceeded to tell me about it. I remained doubtful. Then I learned about the penalty.

I watched the replay many times, and I am fully convinced that it was a dirty trick. I don't know about formula 1, but if karting (I mean real fast karting) is anything like racing a formula car, I am sure he could have avoided the second left swerve. The car did block its right front tire, but it was definitely not out of control. He could have made the corner.

My brother was also a karter, and he, too, thought the same.

Strange as this may seem, I was hoping Schumacher would win. I never liked him particularly, but I thought he had tamed himself. I was actually supporting the underdog (this season's).

I was extremely shocked by his behaviour. His explanation was shameful.

I do not even understand how he could bring himself to this kind of unsporting behaviour. Perhaps the excitement of fighting took the better of him, but this has never happened to a confirmed world champion - or perhaps not until Prost and Senna.

I do think he should apologize. Or at least admit it, as Senna did over the shunt with Prost (the second one - the first one was totally Prost's fault: cheating, indeed) in Suzuka.

I feel Schumacher will go into history as one of the three or for greatest drivers ever, but his name will always be linked with the understatement 'controversial'.