The man isn't perfect. He's made some mistakes, and, perhaps in keeping with the scale of his successes, some of them have been very severe.
It's all to easy to try and reduce the man to saint or sinner, and I think that's would be wrong. Schumacher's great strength was his breadth, a very skillful driver in all aspect of the trade, from his fitness, PR, setup and the many aspects of race driving.
A few years back there was an interview with Michael on the BBC, and went the matter of his conduct with Damon Hill came up, his answer was to accept his error. But, he pointed out, you must remember that he 'grew up' watching the games between Prost and Senna, back when F1 was less sanitized.
I remember a comment made by Keke Rossberg or Jackie Steward or one of the other old timers in the wake of Monaco this year, that the difference between Michael and Senna was that though they'd both run you off the road, at least Senna would tell you that he was going to before the race. Perhaps Michael's weak area was the lack of care for what others thought of him.
There is a side of me that understands the willingness to do anything in pursuit of victory - the urge to push every rule, and to accept the fact that doing that means you will break the rules at times. That strength of desire to win must be admired. But going to far and breaching the rules makes any win meaningless of course.
His achievements are unrivaled. There is not much more that one can say in praise than that that is not a string of superlatives... and there in a list of results.
Even during the rough times with Ferrari, he kept his criticism private. I have the distinct impression that he was never vindictive - when circumstances went against him or other's actions cost him he remained far more professional than most others do. I think it behoves us to realize how well he was liked by those who worked with him. There was so much more to him than we were ever privy to.
I wish him the very best.
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