(Originally posted 7/10/2006)
As some of you readers (yes, all both of you), may know, I am an avid F1 fan, and have been so since about 1993. Never missed a race since then, not even the “OMG I have to get up at 3am to watch this” races. And always, I have supported one man.
Yes, Michael Schumacher was the man for me, even in the days when he looked like he was only 12 years old, and Senna was the man to beat.
Now, 13 years later, he has won just about everything there is to win any F1 race. 7 World Championships (which could become 8 if there’s a God), countless race wins, fastest laps, pole positions, you name it.
But of course there were many people around that disliked him very much so. Because of his arrogance. Because of the way he just magnetically attracted himself to his nearest Championship contender when things went down to the wire. Because he won everything and it’s just too easy to be rooting for the guy who always beats everyone hands down. In 2002 the season got so ridiculous, he had the championship in the bag with half the races still to go. And to top it off, he finished inside the points for every single race that year, which is also a record. It wasn’t a good time for fans of other drivers.
For me , MS has always been the constant factor in F1. Sure, the rules changed, we now have stupid grooved tyres, and traction control back on the cars, but there was still one man who was doing what he does best.
I even supported him through the “rough patch”, in 96 and 97, when he had the crappiest car around and basically just drove around trying to get the car home. The way he turned that team around to what it is today is truly remarkable. The people at Ferrari were apparently so happy about it, that he had a contract that could be extended indefinately.
But I think the time has come now for some new names. There are many big young names out to blitz the world with their talent. First and foremost, we have Fernando Alonso, who pretty much did to Renault what Schumacher did to Ferrari, ie turn a crapbucket of a car and team into an unbeatable, and reliable combination. Then there’s Raikkonen, who’s shown he can drive a car, but hasn’t had the best of luck with cars (particulatly engines). And there are new names added every year that Impress me. Kubica…guy from Poland, never been in an F1 car before 2005 and was on the podium the other week. Vettel, apparently “chosen” for F1 by the same guy that hand picked Schumacher all those years ago.
First time out in an F1 car, and sets the best free practice lap of all of the drivers.
Yet still, none of those names stirs up the same emotion for me. Atleast not yet. I now have some driver that I kinda like (Massa, Rosberg, Kubica), several that I really like (Webber, Raikkonen, Sato, Fisichella) and one I really dislike (Alonso). But things can and must change for the future.
However. Schumacher is a name that gets a reaction from almost anyone. A quite strong reaction from most, in the way of “Stupid bastard”. But like him or dislike him, he has changed the scenery of F1 in the last years, and I for one will miss him when he’s gone. I already look forward to referring to “the good old days, when MS was still racing”.
Many people will be happy he is leaving the sport. To those people I ask : Who will you be hating for the seasons to come? Because there isn’t any driver with a particularly interesting personality anymore. They all are so PC, almost little robots (Raikkonen fits this profile best), saying what the team wants them to say, drives the car as good as they can, and basically keeping thier pie-hole shut for the remainder of time.
When Schumacher was about to win 5 Driver’s Championships, there was a lot of talk about him being “the best ever”. Since nobody had equalled Fangio’s record. And when he did, he still wasn’t “the best ever”, because he was “just as good as Fangio”. So he won again, and still people wouldn’t give him the credit he deserves. I would hear things like “The cars Fangio drove were much more difficult to drive” or “Its a computer with an engine, whoever has the best car wins, it has nothing to do with the driver anymore”.
So then he won the championship for the 7th time, and just about then everyone shut up, because there were no more excuses. He was, and is, the best there ever was.
So my only wish is this, that Schumacher can leave the sport the best way he can. And what better way to do so than to win the Championship. From the start of the season, it looked like (even if his car was better than in 05, which it is) it would be near impossible for MS to win this season. Renault were just too good. But slowly, gradually, the gap Alonso – Schumacher got smaller. And just last week, MS tied them. So it’s really down to these last few races to determine the winner.
Next year will be totally different, and not only because one big name is missing. The other 2 big names will be shuffeled around, as one Spaniard is driving the Silver Arrows next year, and an ice-cool Finn will be racing a fiery red Ferrari. It’ll still be the best sport there ever was. It’ll no doubt be exciting. But some part of F1 will be gone forever, and it will never be the same again…
*cries in beer*
So here’s some little pictures from stuff I want to see repeated tomorrow morning. Make it happen, Michael!
Just for fun, I’ll post all of his records here :
Most championship titles: 7
Most consecutive championship titles: 5
Most race wins: 91
Most consecutive race wins: 7 (in 2004 – European GP, Canadian GP, United States GP, French GP, British GP, German GP, Hungarian GP) This record is shared with Ascari, who won the last 6 races of 1952 and the first one of 1953. The following race was the Indianapolis 500, in which he did not participate. Afterwards he won other two races, but since the Indy 500 was officially part of the F1 World Championship, his winning streak was already over.
Most race wins with one team: 72 with Ferrari
Most race wins at the same GP: 8 at the French Grand Prix (Magny-Cours)
GPs won in most different countries: 20
Most time between first and last race wins: 14 years,1 month and 2 days
Most second place finishes: 43
Most podium finishes: 154
Most consecutive podium finishes: 19 (from the 2001 United States Grand Prix, until the 2002 Japanese Grand Prix)
Most points finishes: 189
Most laps leading: 4970 (with a total of 23,464 km in 136 Grands Prix)
Most pole positions: 68
Most consecutive pole postitions: 7 (tied with Alain Prost)
Most starts from first row: 108
Most fastest laps: 75
Most doubles (pole position and race win): 40
Most hat-trick (pole position, race win and fastest lap): 22
Most championship points: 1,364
Most consecutive race finished without retirement: 24 (from the 2001 Hungarian Grand Prix, until the 2003 Malaysian Grand Prix)
Most race wins in a season: 13 (out of 18 races)
Most fastest laps in a season: 10 (out of 18 races; tied by Raikkanen in 2005)
Most championship points in a season: 148 (out of a maximum of 180) 2002
Most podium finishes in a season: 17 (out of 17 races) 1995Only racing driver ever, in any racing class, to win 5 times at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Only racing driver ever, in any racing class, to win 5 times at Autodromo Nazionale Monza
Youngest double World Champion
