Ten years since Schumacher's last title glory

The Belgian Grand Prix, Spa-Francorchamps, 29^th August 2004. Sitting second on the grid Michael Schumacher must have been thinking another win would come his way, after all he’d spent the previous five months almost winning everything; 12 wins from 13 races. Surely he’d wrap up his inevitable seventh title in victorious style.

It wasn’t to be, although it would have been so appropriate to claim his last title at the track which was always so intertwined with his career; his debut for Jordan in 1991, his first win a year later, a controversial disqualification, the defeat of Damon Hill on a wet track while on dry tyres, several classic strolls into the distance and another mesmeric destruction of the field in the rain.

Spa did give him the title, he finished second to Kimi Raikkonen after slipping back at the start, but after having won the title so many times, I guess in a year of supremacy the only way you’d want to clinch the championship is in style, and second wasn’t the style he was accustomed to.

Schumacher dominated the sport for so long it seems incredible that today marks ten years ago that he wrapped up his final and seventh world championship. Even now for those who have only a peripheral knowledge of the world of Formula 1 he is the name that is conjured up. So complete was his hold on the sport that many people thought he was still out there winning.

Perhaps that is because he so embodied everything about the world of Formula 1, its good and its bad points. He took it to a whole new level of professionalism and brought or established new things which many would now consider essential tools in the driver trade.

His absolute dedication to his fitness, his ability to motivate and be a full part of the team driving them in a positive direction, his constant search for perfection, being one of the first drivers who would twist and turn various instruments during the race which is now common place.

Schumacher was a class apart, his commitment to his goals was unmatched. Nothing was left unturned in his pursuit to be the best out there. Many people at the time became dissatisfied with his constant glory but I thought it was great to be watching a legend do his work right before us. His seven titles (1994, 95 & 2000-2004) and 91 wins could well be matched but it’s going to take someone of complete single minded determination to maintain a win rate such as Schuey had.

The alarming thing is he could well have won a lot more. The titles he missed out on could be said to be even better than some of the championships he took. To my mind at least his 1997 season was majestic. For a modern day comparison think of Fernando Alonso taking the championship to the wire in 2012 except that in ’97 the Ferrari was even more of a dog of a car.

He lead the points into the final race but obviously to the greater world his year was tarnished when faced with the possibility of losing to a car and driver which should have had the title sewn up several races ago if it weren’t for the efforts of Schumacher he swiped into the side of the Williams of Jacques Villeneuve.

A bad ending and one of his professional fouls which he actually admitted to, but to me it takes nothing away from the fact that he had no real right to be challenging for the title that year anyway. The following season he was up against the equally superior McLaren of Mika Hakkinen as the Williams had been before. Again he managed to take the title to the final race. Finally, while leading the 2006 Japanese Grand Prix ahead of Alonso he was just 17 laps away from taking a two point lead into the final race of the year when his engine failed. His luck which had always been so good was finally deserting him as his first career came to a close.

Of course it possibly should have continued at Ferrari for another year or two. For reasons which remain unclear Kimi was signed without Schumacher’s knowledge and he was ushered into a retirement he wasn’t really ready for. Can we speculate what might have happened? Well you can never be sure, but I’m pretty sure nevertheless. 2007 wouldn’t have been the three way classic between Kimi, Alonso and Lewis Hamilton. It would have been a final Schuey title.

The way those three capitulated and the fact Kimi and Felipe Massa were so evenly matched when Schumacher had mostly had the beating of Massa pretty comprehensively leads me to believe he’d have used the 2007 Ferrari to devastating effect. It certainly would have been interesting to witness the following year, Hamilton against Schumacher in equally matched cars. It's a missing highlight just like the lack of a proper full title fight between Schumacher and Ayrton Senna, it's added to the long list of what could have beens.

We caught a glimpse of how good it might have been in the 2011 Italian Grand Prix with an epic dual between Hamilton and Schumacher which was an utter joy and also beautifully aggressive. Because of course Schuey did retire at the end of 2006 before coming back in a blaze of glory in 2010 for Mercedes.

It didn’t work out quite as well as had been hoped, the luck I mentioned earlier was practically non-existant this time around. Despite Mercedes spawning from the ashes of 2009 championship winners Brawn GP, the car wasn’t up to it. In fact the car, the tyres, the competition had all moved on. Schumacher was also faced with ageing, even he couldn’t hold back time. There were stupid accidents, moments of indecision and several poor races. But there were highs too, that battle with Hamilton, fourth in Canada 2011, the pole lap of the season in Monaco 2012, his podium in Valencia and a comeback charge from the back to seventh in his final final race.

He said later his Mercedes comeback taught him how to lose, but you could see that mostly he was still enjoying it, I think gone was the total commitment to winning, he still wanted to certainly and some of his on track manoeuvres proved that, but he was a more relaxed individual in the public eye and seemed happy enough to be racing and working towards something.

The rewards never came but as we’ve come to appreciate, his comparison to Nico Rosberg is nothing at all to be ashamed of as Nico matches Hamilton in this years championship. Schumacher was often faster on race pace, so despite not demonstrating the devastating winning habit that characterised his first career it wasn’t quite as bad as some make out and when analysed properly doesn’t take anything away from his legacy. 

Not only is it ten years since his last title but later on this year it will be twenty since his first title. No one else has managed to sustain such comprehensive success to stay at the top of the sport for season after season, he will forever be talked about amongst the greats.

Of course there were the controversial moments, including questionable driving methods, favouritism from his team and the sports governing bodies. With regards to the team favouritism, he worked himself into that position so why should he not have benefitted? But these controversies are not what should be remembered about his career.

It should be just how exceptional he was, how much of a racer he was and how much he loved the sport he dominated. I remember the first time I saw him win live at the 1998 British Grand Prix in the pouring rain which encapsulated his career for me as it showed the racer and the controversy. It was mesmeric watching his hands dancing on the steering wheel as you could see him delicately balancing the car coming through club, driving hard through the spray but to win in the pit lane created uproar at the time.

You always knew something would happen when Michael Schumacher was racing. Since he retired for the second time he was still looking for challenges, looking for fun and thrills while also helping extensively with charities which wasn't overly publicised. I truly hope he can make as good a recovery as possible from the horrible skiing accident at the end of last year that left him in a coma for nearly six months. So now is the time to remember his success and continue to wish him well for more success in the future. Keep fighting Michael.

For some of my favourite Schumacher moments, please click here

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Ricciardo takes another win as Kimi shines

So the 2014 seasons return from the summer break opens with a bang with some sensational racing, a brilliantly crafted victory and a controversial clash between the title rivals Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton which you can read about here. It was a fine way to start the second half of the season with Daniel Ricciardo taking his second consecutive victory and third in six races with another brilliant drive.

He had a scruffy opening lap but settled down and was soon ahead of Alonso and slipped by Vettel when his Red Bull team mate ran wide. Once through he chased down the damaged Rosberg and took the lead when the Mercedes pitted.

From there it looked like the race was his, there were brief moments when it appeared that Kimi Raikkonen or Valtteri Bottas might be in range and I’m sure there were nervous moments when Nico Rosberg closed him down by several seconds a lap towards the end, but he held something back and took the win.

It puts Ricciardo only 64 points back from Rosberg, that’s under three race wins away. I’m pretty sure it won’t happen but at the moment with the way things are at Mercedes you do wonder if they could manage to throw the drivers championship away. Whatever though, Ricciardo is driving a fantastic season and in my opinion took his best win of the year so far; lead from the front and never looked troubled.

Rosberg started from pole position but fell to third at the start. He passed Sebastian Vettel as the Red Bull ran off the road during the first lap and was second behind Hamilton as lap 2 started. He went for the lead at Les Combes but hit his team mate causing Lewis a puncture and himself a broken front wing in what was a clumsy manoeuvre but one which he and the stewards labelled a racing incident. He half heartedly stuck his front wing alongside and then just left it there knowing Lewis would stick to the racing line.

He stopped early on lap 8 to change his front wing and had to make a three stop strategy work for him to get him back onto the podium. It says a lot about the Mercedes advantage that another lap or so and he might have won. 

Hamilton circulated at the back as he tried to recover, but his car was damaged from the flailing carcass of his tyre. He retired five laps from the end way off a points finish. Understandably there is a lot of friction at the Mercedes team right now.

Bottas completed the podium with third for Williams including a great move on Vettel at Les Combes, showing Rosberg how it should be done by being almost fully alongside his opponent. Bottas and Ricciardo really are the drivers of the season so far. Bottas’ team mate Felipe Massa suffered more poor luck with debris from Hamilton’s car clogging his front wing meaning he was seconds off the pace because of a major loss of downforce. Once the team cured it at his second pit stop he was the fastest car on track, another case of what might have been.

My drive of the race though has to go to Kimi Raikkonen. What a great drive from someone who is still not comfortable in the car. James Allison, Ferrari technical director, has basically admitted the car will not suit Kimi this year and there’s nothing they can do about it, so to keep his foot flat to the floor at a circuit like Spa was a tremendous performance.

He made a two stop strategy work including his last stint being longer than anyone else at 23 laps on the medium compound, over half the race distance. He started eighth and was around sixth when he pitted fairly early on lap 8, after Rosberg the first major player to pit. He then put in a number of fastest laps to undercut a lot of the front runners. In fact he ran second before Rosberg got him and then Bottas worked his way by, but they had to work for it. It was a great drive and a reminder that he can still deliver.

Vettel started third and in front of Ricciardo for the second consecutive race. Of course as is the way in 2014 he could not keep up the pace during the race. He can’t seem to make the tyres last as well resulting in a three stop strategy.

The opening half a lap when he challenged for the lead was like old times but then two mistakes dropped him back and it was only a fight past Kevin Magnussen, Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button that earned him a top five result.

But that scrap was fantastic in the dying laps. Magnussen had been defending brilliantly from Alonso for what felt like the majority of the race. The Ferrari driver had earned a five second penalty for his team coming back on the grid after the 15 second warning had been sounded as the cars were about to leave for the formation lap. This left him fighting for the top six rather than a podium.

As always though Alonso is relentless and was trying all sorts to get by the McLaren, but Magnussen matched him and coming onto the Kemmel Straight closed the door firmly on the Ferrari, but it forced Alonso onto the grass. It also let Button attack, he swept past Alonso then immediately attacked Magnussen who eased him onto the kerbs which let Alonso back through then set him up for Vettel too.

Vettel then dispensed with Alonso then Magnussen and cruised off but the McLaren Ferrari battle raged on. Eventually McLaren won, Magnussen heading Button. Unfortunately for Magnussen the stewards judged him too aggressive towards Alonso and penalised a drive through penalty which equated to 20 seconds. This means he ends up only 12^th and results in Button finishing sixth with Alonso behind in seventh.

Perez seemed to have a quiet race as he rose up from 13^th to eighth while Daniil Kvyat impressed again with another points visit to take initially 10^th which became ninth. Nico Hulkenberg grabbed a point for tenth after Magnussen’s penalty after a quiet weekend.

Andre Lotterer, making his debut for Caterham in place of Kamui Kobayashi only lasted a lap unfortunately. He may make another appearance but it seems Kamui’s seat is to be rented out to whoever can afford it in future races.

All of this means Rosberg now holds a 29 point lead in the championship with seven rounds left to run. It's going to be interesting how Mercedes react to their driver situation.

Should they look over their shoulder at Ricciardo? They surely don't want him to be winning any more right now as that'll complicate matters still further. 

Monza is next up with its fast straights and mostly slow corners so I think the most likely challenger will definitely be Williams. I think they really do stand a good chance of victory there. Never discount Red Bull though, particularly Ricciardo in his present form. He just seems to be in the right place at the right time this year and is maximising every opportunity that comes his way.

All eyes though will be on the Silver Arrow squad. Their drivers have committed the cardinal sin of hitting each other in combat, that is unacceptable. But how will they handle it? Surely they cannot pick a side? 

Whatever happens, Italy is going to be a sensational atmosphere, Williams and Red Bull battle it out for best of the rest and maybe a shot at victory, Ferrari back on home turf; can Kimi maintain this good form and will Alonso pull off a miracle result? And just how will Lewis react to Nico? It could all kick off in Italy.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Rosberg collides with Hamilton to 'prove a point'

The gloves most certainly are off in this fantastic fight for the 2014 world championship. Lewis Hamilton in his media briefing after the Belgian Grand Prix says that Nico Rosberg deliberately did not avoid the collision at Les Combes which led to a puncture for the #44 Mercedes to prove a point after the team orders fiasco in Hungary.

Here’s the quote in full from crash.net “It looked quite clear to me but we just had a meeting about it and he basically said he did it on purpose,” Hamilton said. “He said he did it on purpose, he said he could have avoided it. He said 'I did it to prove a point', he basically said 'I did it to prove a point'. And you don't have to just rely on me, go and ask Toto [Wolff], Paddy [Lowe] and all those guys who are not happy with him as well.”

He goes on to explain Nico’s mind-set as he came into the weekend. “It's interesting because we had that meeting on Thursday and Nico expressed how angry he was – I was thinking 'It's been three weeks and you've been lingering?!' He expressed how angry he was, he literally sat there and said how angry he was at Toto and Paddy. But I thought we should be good after that and then this result … it's interesting.”

Sensational words from Lewis Hamilton and one which contrasts greatly with the immediate reaction to the incident. Initially many thought it was just a clumsy racing incident, no one thought it was a deliberate act. My initial reaction was that it was Rosberg’s fault, that he was being a bit too opportunistic but that perhaps Lewis could have left more room. This is obviously not the case. However, he did not deliberately cause the clash but he did not remove himself from harm when it was obvious what was about to happen.

As Lewis says, it’s ‘interesting’ especially because throughout the season Rosberg has been painted as the driver who keeps his emotions under control and will not be controlled by them in stark contrast to how Lewis is often portrayed. But this incident clouds everything.

The benefit of the doubt was given to Nico in Monaco after the qualifying episode when he went off track which prevented Lewis setting a quicker time for pole position. Does that now have to be qualified if he thinks these things through?

Could this all stem from the Bahrain fight when many accused Nico of not being aggressive enough to get past an obviously slower Lewis? Has this been brewing since then? In Hungary Lewis was asked to let Nico through as he was on a different strategy to which Lewis being a much greater thinker than people give him credit for had already worked out that if he did he would be beaten at the end of the race, so why should he?

Rosberg was told Lewis would let him by, but this was not was Lewis was asked to do, it was more if he does try to pass don’t defend. Nico was never close enough to attempt a move. So we come to Belgium in which that incident has obviously been plaguing Nico’s mind throughout the summer break and he wanted to reassert himself against Lewis and in a way the team, who ended up supporting Hamilton’s stance on the Hungary team orders.

For a driver who is meant to logically work through things Rosberg’s attitude to this race seems rather backwards. He had an 11 point lead in the championship, has impressed people with his speed against Hamilton, what he did could well have ended up with his nose damaged or off and Lewis scampering away to victory and maybe even taking the championship lead. It was a stupid thing to do to ‘prove a point.’ Prove a point by making a clean move and demonstrating who the better driver is.

Admittedly we were only two laps into the race but Nico looked quicker at that point, he had another 42 laps to do something. To just leave your nose in a gap which was always going to close can now in the light of what Lewis says be called crude. A lot of people’s attitudes towards Rosberg will change now but even if it has been overblown, Rosberg is tainted. Surely this is not the way he would want to win a world championship.

Of course we have yet to hear how Nico will react to Lewis’ accusations. On Mercedes part they say that Lewis is telling the truth but Toto Wolff has said Nico's comments may have been misinterpreted. Rather than he said he deliberately hit Lewis, it was that he just didn't backdown. In the end that surely is the same thing for he knew it might cause a collision? For now Nico has said it’s a racing incident and it should be pointed out the stewards thought the same as there was no investigation but it’ll still be interesting to see how the team in particular respond to this.

To Rosberg’s credit he drove another fine damage limitation race after the incident, coming back strongly from a nose change to come home second. On the podium he looked shaken as the boos rang out from the grandstands and in the media pen he looked very uncomfortable. Was this someone who couldn’t understand why he has being grilled so hard or someone who knew exactly why?

In any event it cost Hamilton dearly. Lewis thought he should retire as soon as he got back out the pits from changing his puncture as the floor was wrecked costing him a lot of downforce.

He carried on with persuasion from the team but retired five laps from the end. You might have thought he would’ve learned from British Grand Prix qualifying to carry on pushing until there’s absolutely no hope, but in the end it was a pointless weekend which started strongly. He took the lead from second on the grid to head pole sitter Rosberg. He held off Sebastian Vettel in a near re-run of last year’s opening lap and then came Rosberg’s nosecone and that was that.

So Rosberg now holds a 29 point lead in the championship but what’s occurred in Belgium today looks like it will affect how the rest of the season unfolds especially from the team dynamic point of view at Mercedes. Team boss Toto Wolff has already said they will look at how they will run their drivers in the future.

I hope this doesn’t mean they’ll be put on leashes but Mercedes do not want another accident like this or worse. The tension in Italy is going to be electric and I think sparks will fly. All eyes will be on the Silver Arrow squad, how will Lewis react at the next race, will Rosberg remain defiant and how will Mercedes control their drivers? We’ll leave it to Lewis to finish: "He just came in there and said it was all my fault. When you’re out there you have to trust the people with their heads and [that they] don’t do things deliberately. After that meeting I don’t really know how to approach the next race."