The strange case of Schumacher

[thearmofbarlow]

devalued -It´s not really the ingenious driver or engineer who gets everything right that weekend ...It´s more a lucky draw
for the team and driver combo...

It´s like a big drum of variables not understood by the teams or drivers and apart from Caterham ,HRT and Marussia it could be anyones weekend ..that´s not worth a lot considering you could get it terribly wrong as well and don´t know why .
See button. see Maldonato ,see Raikkonen ,Massa .

All teams all drivers were affected already by the strange behaviour of these tyres under different conditions for different drivers it is a mystery and remains as such.
Just hear what they have on offer for explanations ...just rediculous...the car was off in minor areas (for Button) but it had a huge impact ...So they have no means of understanding how to value some aspects of the setup of the car when something minor can decide between dominating a race and getting lapped..

Here's the thing... everyone has the same tires. Everyone has the same opportunity to screw up or nail it.

What it comes down to is F1 has hit the same point that the NFL did a decade ago. A salary cap was instituted to provide a more even field in the free agent market. The most moneyed teams couldn't just buy their way to players they had to develop them. The idea was parity, the notion that any team could be capable of winning the championship any given year through consistent on-field performance rather than consistent front office spending.

Revised wings. Spec tires. Resource restriction. Testing bans. These are all there to induce parity. You can either cry about the same four people not winning like they did the past two years or you can sit back, relax, and enjoy what's going to be a damn good remainder of the season.

[siskue2005]

F1 was poorer after Schumacher retired and it will poorer still when he retires again.

I agree, Schumacher brings that extra something. I hope he stays for a few more years yet, he's improving every year by the looks of things!

I can't imagine F1 being the same without him (again).

It was really an amateur hour in 2007, 2008

[Raptor22]

THe other fact that discredits Alguersari's "Schumacher tyres" (which is merely a BBS surmon) is that those tyres remained pretty constant for about 4 seasons. Everyone had an opportunity to get on top of them and understand how to use them. This non sense about Bridgestone building a special tyre for Ferrari was only true in 2005 when Michelin was the tyre to have and Bridgestone only had Ferrari as their hope for a championship.

I'm really sick of the BS thats spued out by the BBC. Their bais is juvenile and quite disrespectful to the f1 fan community

[marcush.]

for the younger ones here in the forum -Formula 1 in germany IS Schumacher ,not because of him driving again but because of the impact he made.
When he arrived in this sport ...no german driver was even close to scoring points ,the likes of Christian Danner wer backmarkers more or less for the whole duration of their career in Formula 1 .
Schumacher came in with a bang was miles faster than de Cesaris from the word go and had no issues matching Piquet at Benneton without ANY acclimatisation time and no testing really .
Without him RTL would not have committed big time to broadcasting Formula 1 for all these years ...and little Vettel may well have never realised that karting was what he needed to do.
The other two chaps from the same years Frentzen ,Wendlinger ,Müller have for one reason or another not made any big impact in motorsports (apart from making a decent living from it which is ok ) but it was MS who changed the Motorsport world inn germany ...as he was supported by RTL media and mre important as he fullfilled all promise and a fair bit more.
To me is quite fantastic to see him driving again in the sport he loves so much and being competitive is the icing of the cake.
My opinion is Schumacher s agenda is to benchmark his capability in competitve machinery this year and if he is convinced an 8th title is possible 2013 he will commit.
So I expect him to announce his plans after bagging the first win in his second career .

[ArchAngel]

Next thing you know, GP2 hacks barely out of their teens with a couple of point-finishing races will start taking potshots at every landmark achievement and F1 record that Schu has rewritten. To Alguersari, I suggest he try to get an invite to RoC so that -- like Vettel, Button, etc. -- he can find out what it's like to race with the man on equal machinery & tyres.

[razorbum]

I think Schumacher is a great driver, and a great man. No matter what people said about him over his few years of dominance, I think he deserves a great deal of respect.

It's easy for a man to become arrogant, or complacent when he's enjoying a great deal of success. But I think his return to F1 in his recent years has proven him to be a greater man than he was than when he retired earlier.

I'm enjoying his drives and I do hope to see him winning a couple more Grand Prix, or possibly another World Title (a long shot to be honest) if he stays beyond this season. Such joy when he managed a podium at Valencia. Should Ferrari be holding out for a year to wait for any drivers and Massa were to leave, it would be ideal to see Schumacher drive for Ferrari again (though I think they are more likely to go for Webber than Schumacher should Webber leave RBR)

If not, Mercedes should really keep him for at least another year. Right now he's not racing for fame or money (he has both), he's a true race driver who's here to challenge himself as much as he can. It's rare to have such a driver to race through so many generations of drivers and still be in contention for the top spot. I'm saying this because he had many great drives before his car failed in many races this season.