Scotracer wrote:Don't be stupid. All the top drivers that Hamilton faces were around in Shumacher's days (
and he was TOTALLY dominant in those years too). Also, traction control came back into the sport in 2001...what about all the years prior to that?
Some people have more faith than sense
Regarding TC, Rubens leaned on it far more than MS but your history is bad. Setting aside his Benetton years with their questionable electronics, only Schumi's 2000 title was won without TC. Four of his seven titles were won with TC so whatever point you were aiming to refute seems to need another argument as your's clearly fails to make the case.
MS TOTALLY dominant? Like he was in 2005 and 2006?
Let's take a clear historical look at Schumi's last five titles shall we....
In 2000 he finally beat Mika fairly with nearly equal equipment.
In 2001 he had the best car and only had DC to beat.
In 2002 he only had to beat Rubens. The car did the rest.
In 2003 he needed the FIA to win his titles.
In 2004 he only had to beat Rubens. The car did the rest.
MS won 2003 because the FIA stole the title from the Michelin teams. Either Kimi or JPM would have won the WDC that year. With JPM and Williams being the greater threat in 2003, the FIA further augmented their efforts to save the title for Ferrari by DQing Montoya at Indy for a totally fabricated offense. Before the "wide front tire" bogus ruling Ferrari was lapped at Hungary by Fernando, after the "ruling", the Michelin teams didn't win a race. And Fernando beat the "TOTALLY dominant" MS
plus the FIA (mass dampers are movable aero?) in 2006.
Don't get me wrong, MS was and is great but he enjoyed
political favoritism and a great car advantage. In 2002 and 2004 he only beat Rubens as
Rubens beat all the rest soundly. Are you saying that Rubens was/is TOTALLY dominant over JPM, Kimi, Fernando, Button etc.? I don't think so.
Technical input... yes, a thousand times yes, MS contributed to the car/tires greatly. Perhaps no time more than in 1998 when Mac started with a 1.5 sec advantage in Australia and by round three in Argentina MS was winning again.
But many things weighed in Schumi's favor. Because Kimi had fragile equipment, Mika was his only real competition until Fernando, who beat him fairly. Historically speaking, 2001 - 2004 were years with the least competitive driver/car field ever and it wasn't because MS was kicking ass. In 2002 Ferrari had at least 1.2 sec. in the bag and they could afford to run very conservative engine maps while others blew up. The driver can only do so much. It was the car that placed MS on the podium every race in 2002. Yes he did his part but things like that don't happen unless the car is just that much better and it finishes the race reliably. In 2004 they also had about 1.2 sec. in the bag. When events conspired in Monza to reveal that Button's two stopping strategy left Ferrari on the back foot, suddenly they were able to use an engine map that gave them almost 1.7 sec. a lap advantage evaporating Button's huge lead and thus denying BAR their maiden victory. They didn't want the other teams to know they had this much in the bag.
All in all, Schumi was/is great but I rate him below Senna and Prost in the modern era. And FWIW, Senna also enjoyed a bit of political favoritism both with the FIA, who winked at some of his questionable tactics, and with Honda. Senna had to beat Prost. Prost had to beat Senna, Mansell, the historically underrated 3 time champ Piquet Sr., and Berger. Senna was no doubt the quickest ever. Prost was the most subtle and savvy ever. He lost two titles by one point and another title by 1/2 point and he won four titles... all this against much stiffer competition than MS ever faced (except perhaps for the Mika years). Yes, 1993 was a cake walk in a superior car for Prost but in my book Prost is still tops followed by Senna, then a bit farther back is Schumi. OK, I have spoked the blasphemy... now I will have to endure the Scuderia sycophants' wrath but don't say I didn't back it up without reasons.
Time will tell on Hamilton but Fernando's achievements so far out pace Schumi's early career. Youngest pole, youngest fast lap, youngest GP win, youngest WDC, youngest WDC repeat/defense of title, and his wins per start/points per start are right up there too. Let's just see for both Ham and Fernando. Kimi seems to have peaked already.
Innovation over refinement is the prefered path to performance. -- Get rid of the dopey regs in F1
