[ytgti]

Wahooo. Well done Montoya, glad he's out.

What did you think to Schumachers Pit Stop fire. Glad things are ok.

Second stop was better.

[ytgti]

I'm RED all the way. I love Ferrari been a fan for years.

I knew this would start some Ferrari/Schumacher debates.

[ytgti]

I didn't mean it like that. I should of put a at the end of it.

[Sick Note]

Cant complain really at least watching F1 over the last few years has cured my insomnia, I now know that every second sunday I will get a get a good couple of hours kip.
The commentators try to make it sound so exciting, why dont they admit that watching F1 now is like watching dust settle.
The rule changes havent done anything significant and if Rubins and Michael hadnt had small probs with the pit stop they would have won by a week.The other teams had better get there fingers out sooner rather than later

I stopped watching it when (I think) Barrichello who was in 1st place, allowed Schumacher - in 2nd place- let him overtake.

What's the point of enjoying the race when you know this crap might happen? Boring boring boring.

[wilber]

love those superbikes though

[ChrisNic]

This season has been a major improvement on last, im pretty sure the leader board didnt look like it does last year. The qualifying was a great idea (in my opinion) and Schumacher M in qualifying yesterday was pretty amazing I thought.

[lmccauley]

I totally agree with cheapskate & Confucius. I ended up not watching most of last years races, but after seeing the Australian GP this year, I've made a conscious effort to catch as many as I can.

Personally I don't like MS, but you've got to give him credit for staying cool when the flames were licking around his half-empty fuel tank...

Shame about Montoya's end to the race, but I don't think he needs much of our sympathy when you see his wife...

[Geezer]

Originally posted by ytgti
Wahooo. Well done Montoya, glad he's out.

What did you think to Schumachers Pit Stop fire. Glad things are ok.

Second stop was better.

i like Montoya, see him as a bit of a maverick.

I'm a Schumacher fan, just because I enjoy the spectacle of him racing. Especially in the wet. It really is amazing to watch: he almost seems to make the car float at times.

The best thing about this season has been Button consistently out-qualifying and out-racing that gobsh*** Villeneuve. It seems Button is prepared to let his driving do the talking...

[Joe Pineapples]

Have you noticed that you never hear Martin Brundle describe a race as 'action packed' etc, if he believes that it wasent. James Allen on the other hand, will contribute pit-lane incidents or anything else he can, to calling it a good race. I suppose being the offical main commentator for ITV-F1, he has to make it as exciting as possible, but the fact is that no amount of race incidents (pit lane, engines blowing) will ever make up for proper head-to-head and overtaking action - something sadly lacking at the moment.

[Reepicheep]

It's a shame that the pole position qualifying sessions are more exciting than the actual race!

[Kirk]

Well, I for one love F1 and this season has been a bit of a blinder so far.

Although, the last two races suck monkey nuts (Ferrari winning = bad)

I hope that Williams get their act together and Renault continue to perform, however, my real interest is with the boys in Silver, and more precisely DC.....come on son, get it together!

Still, its exciting to think that both drivers and constructors championships are still up in the air, rather than last years shambles.


Hmm here's a thought....I wonder what everyone is gonna do at Monaco? Do you think we are going to have loads of likely lads running the Qualifying with sod all fuel onboard in order to get pole and sprint away for 10 laps?

I don't think David Coulthard stands much chance of winning anything now. He might have stood a chance without team orders when he was driving with Mika Hakkonen (sp?), but Kimi Raikonnen (sp?) is far better than DC.

I'd like to see Renault and Williams do better, but I'm glad Maclaren aren't dominating it: they always seem so smug, and they also seem to have fingers in the rule-making pie.

I feel quite priveliged to be able to watch the career of the greatest ever F1 driver, Michael Schumacher. Just imagine the conversations we'll be able to have in our retirement homes on the moon. "That young whatsisface, he's not a patch on Schumacher."

[wilber]

Originally posted by rhoamish

I feel quite priveliged to be able to watch the career of the greatest ever F1 driver, Michael Schumacher. Just imagine the conversations we'll be able to have in our retirement homes on the moon. "That young whatsisface, he's not a patch on Schumacher."

Not the greatest - one of the greatest, well into the top ten maybe top five.

Fangio, Moss, Stewart, Clark all drove at a time when the car was not as important as it is today - put Button, Webber or Trulli in the current Ferrari and they'd win. So Michael's stats are somewhat distorted by the machinery.

I've been watching F1 long enough to have seen three of the greatest - Schumacher, Prost and Senna. Of those I think Senna was the man, It's a shame we never got to see him mix it with Schumacher for more than a handful of races in the fateful season he joined Williams.

[billduff]

Originally posted by wilber
Not the greatest - one of the greatest, well into the top ten maybe top five.

Fangio, Moss, Stewart, Clark all drove at a time when the car was not as important as it is today - put Button, Webber or Trulli in the current Ferrari and they'd win. So Michael's stats are somewhat distorted by the machinery.

I've been watching F1 long enough to have seen three of the greatest - Schumacher, Prost and Senna. Of those I think Senna was the man, It's a shame we never got to see him mix it with Schumacher for more than a handful of races in the fateful season he joined Williams.

Totally agree. He has had a decade of basically unrivalled competition and is without a doubt the better driver out there today but that does not make him the best ever or indeed in my top 5.

Look at the 80's and early 90's where you had Piquet, Prost, Senna & Mansell all in very good cars all splitting the races and championships between them. Almost every season went down to the last race.

If any one of them didn't have the competition of the others then Schumacher would still be chasing their records. They kept each other honest and thier collective results speak for themselves.

Apart from a couple of years when McLaren were winning everything at the end of the 90's Schumacher has had 5 years of almost no challenge from outside and his contract stop competion from inside the team. Its easy to break records when the rest of the field is that far behind and your teammate is hanicapped in a contractual manner

My own Personal top 5 are

5. Graham Hill (F1 Champ, Indy 500 and Le Mans 24hr winner)
4. Jackie Stewart (sheer determination)
3. Alain Prost (most tactical driver ever)
2. Jim Clark (best car control I have ever seen)
1. Ayrton Senna (nothing more to say)

[JohnG]

Schumacher is a very good driver but I still can't forgive him for cheating in Australia when he deliberately drove into Damion Hill. At that stage Schumacher's race was finished completely and the only was to stop Hill winning the Championship was to cheat

[adox]

Originally posted by wilber

Fangio, Moss, Stewart, Clark all drove at a time when the car was not as important as it is today - put Button, Webber or Trulli in the current Ferrari and they'd win. So Michael's stats are somewhat distorted by the machinery.

lets not forget that schumaker left the team with the best car at the time- benneton,to join a team that had been struggling for years-ferrari. it is a simple fact of life imo that schumaker is in a comepletely different league to the rest of the f1 drivers today.
and if you put button, webber or trulli in a ferrari, i still think they would be very hard pushed to beat schumaker if he was in a car from one of the top three or four teams.

[wilber]

Originally posted by adox
if you put button, webber or trulli in a ferrari, i still think they would be very hard pushed to beat schumaker if he was in a car from one of the top three or four teams.

Not the point I was making - Schumacher's stats lead people to believe he is "the best ever", take the dominance of the car out of the equation and his stats wouldn't be as good.

As for leaving the team with the best car - well there's a few things to say there:

The writing was on the wall for Benetton since it was clear that the new Williams was going to be dominant for a while (Hill & Villeneuve championships). At the prompting of other teams, the FIA had also begun to look closer at the Benetton (big questions over the software package) so who knows what features were removed after Michael's departure.

Ferrari was and always will be THE team to drive for - Mansell went there knowing that the car was a dog.

Ferrari offered MS the hugest amount of money imaginable.

Ferrari promised the earth to assemble the best talent in F1 to design the car and manage the team (and they did)

So I don't think it was too hard a decision to make.

[billduff]

Originally posted by wilber
Ferrari promised the earth to assemble the best talent in F1 to design the car and manage the team (and they did)

I think that is the more crucial point. When MS went to Ferrari the best of the Beneton outfit moved there as well. Ross Brawn, Rory Bryne and a couple of engineers. Jean Todt and Luca Mentezemelo knew that spending on the design team was the only way forward.

Credit where it's due though they designed and built the car up over a couple of years and they all stuck with it until it was a winner. (strong praise indeed from an ardent disliker of Ferrari)

It cost them literally BILLIONS to get that car into a winner and still more to keep it there, something any aother team cannot afford. McLaren are well off but not in that league. Williams are still a bit further down the cash stakes.

The only thing that stops Ferrari from being the ultimate team are their tactics. I disaprrove of them strongly and I think they were responsible for the downturn in viewers and the disgust at the sport last year.

In reality is not Ferrari or Schumachers fault that the competion is not there for them.

In a couple of years there may be some drivers who can really challenge (Alonso and Raikkonen spring to mind) and some drivers who can put up a good fight now but not all the time. DC is a very good driver on his day but lacks the consistency to make it to a championship.

MS is good but not good enough to be the top 5 of all time IMHO.

[gringottsdirect]

Originally posted by rhoamish
I feel quite priveliged to be able to watch the career of the greatest ever F1 driver, Michael Schumacher. Just imagine the conversations we'll be able to have in our retirement homes on the moon. "That young whatsisface, he's not a patch on Schumacher."

I've been taken to races since I was sperm, I can remember when my uncles were saying no-one comes close to Jim Clark, then came Nigel Mansell, determined beginnings in mid-field cars, first flush of triumph with Williams in 1985, nearly winning championship in 1986, then performing heroics with Judd engined Williams, before flashes of success and Prost treachery at Ferrari, causing brief retirement, then born again Williams-Renault of 1991.
Then came 1992, for Mansell-Mania was everywhere to behold, the doubters said, " Ah, but he's got the best car, a muppet could win in a Williams now ". For the first time Mansell had a car advantage and used it to crushing effect, but for years Senna enjoyed a car advantage, as does MS now, but little is made of that, instead for F1 beautiful people it would choke them to give a working class brummie the place in history he deserves.
Still, F1 snobs damned with faint praise, 1993 Nige blitzed Indy, setting new records and taking back to back championships.
For me nothing since has equalled the Senna, Prost, Mansell, Piquet era, for what it's worth I think Michael Schumacher is fantastic, I would love to have seen him battle Ayrton for a few seasons 1994 onwards, we were robbed of that.
The more I watch races now the more I miss Mr. Senna and Mr. Mansell, everyone thinks they watched the Golden Era, but just as my uncles kept reminiscing about the sixties I'm absolutely sure my treasured race week-ends will never be surpassed.
It's early days but Fernando Alonso looks very promising

[wilber]

Yep you're right about alonso - I think F1 has skipped a generation, Ralf, Montoya, Trulli et al already look to be yesterdays men. The future already looks like being carved out by the likes of Alonso, Raikonen, De Matta, Webber & Button (of whom I heard 1st hand at an after dinner speech Sir Frank say that it was the biggest gamble he had taken to replace him with Montoya and he still wasn't sure that he'd won) - It can't come soon enough for the sport.

[billduff]

Originally posted by wilber
the likes of Alonso, Raikonen, De Matta, Webber & Button

Agree with most of them. Alonso and Webber are my stars of the season so far.

Pity Webber hasn't had a bit more reliability on the car but signing for two more years should give him time to develop as a driver.

I agree it was very exciting when Prost, Senna and Mansell were racing (I'd have Mansell in my top 5 all time drivers too). And I agree that the future of F1 looks more exciting with the up and coming young talent.

But perhaps the interim years have been a bit dull because Schumacher is so utterly, devistatingly, crushingly good? He rarely makes mistakes, he is in a different league when it rains, and he won his first season in a car that was far from the best on the grid. Some of his tactics have been dubious, I'll agree, but some of his performances have been legendary.

The only thing that stops people recognising his talent is the lack of any worthy drivers to judge him against. His problem is that he makes it look too easy...