Schumacher announces his retirement!

[stan_deezy]

So with Mick Schumacher leaving Formula One motor racing does he really warrant being called the greatest racing driver ever?

Statisically he looks to have a claim and certainly some of his driving has been "pretty good" but has his reputation been tarnished by his blatant cheating ?

And is Formula One followed much in the US?

 

[roscoe]

Re: Schumacher announces his retirement!

He will be considered one of the best, but not the greatest, IMO.

Formula 1 has a following, but not a huge following.
It wasn't until the last few years that we had consistent television coverage.

 

[JB]

Re: Schumacher announces his retirement!

I think Schuey has claim to be the greatest F1 driver ever. Some other great drivers excelled in a variety of motor racing.

Guys like Juan Fangio (5 F1 championships), Ascari, Clark, Hill (Phil and Graham), Andretti, McClaren, etc. all won F1 Championships but also won Le Mans, Indianapolis and/or other top level races. Sir Sterling Moss must be the best F1 race driver ever who never won a championship.

Cheating? I have seen a couple of incidents in the 12 years I have followed his career that looked like he was trying for an unfair advantage. He didn't win 90 F1 races and 7 world championships by cheating.

I think Schuey is a class act, and very good for racing in general and F1 in particular.

F1 has a fanatical following at The Hideout.

 

[technostingray]

Re: Schumacher announces his retirement!

F1 has a fanatical following at The Hideout.

Where JB is a majority of one.

 

[JB]

Re: Schumacher announces his retirement!

. . . and I am unanimous in that. 8)

 

[stan_deezy]

Re: Schumacher announces his retirement!

I like yer style JB 8)

I agree he didn't win all his races by cheating but between him and his team they managed to "fix" a lot of the results and I have a feeling that his reputation may be tarnished because of some of the "tactical decisions" that were made down the years.

I didn't care much for his public persona although I understand that he's a great guy "off-camera". I certainly admire the amount of effort he put into getting to the top of his sport but I admire the other guys that you listed more. In fact Nigel Mansell was probably just as good a driver at the time and he managed to overcome the "one-trick pony" label by successfully going to the US and winning.

One things for sure, this is the end of an era and it'll be interesting to see how history judges him.........................

 

[Dunaruna]

Re: Schumacher announces his retirement!

[colour=blue]IMO - any way you look at it, he is the best by far.

I have lost count of the amount of times he has come through the field and won the race.

The Cavallino Rampante will have trouble filling his shoes.

 

[Gone]

Re: Schumacher announces his retirement!

I'm not sure about him being the best just because he won a lot of races. The technology of the cars made for a huge disparity between brands which, IMO, tilted the scales in his favor.
I lean towards JB's choices.

CD

 

[JB]

Re: Schumacher announces his retirement!

Good point, VCD.

Driving a Ferrari did give him an advantage much of the time, But neither Mercedes nor Benneton were superior technologically when he drove them.

In those years that Mclaren/Mercedes and then Renault were at least competitive or superior he didn't win the championship. This year, however, he has had to beat superior cars and maybe even superior (due to youth) drivers to win. Alonzo, Raikonnen, Button and Heidfeld are all as good as he is now but not as good as he was at 25.

Will he win championship #8 this year? BMW was a superior car at Monza, and so was Mercedes but he won on superior team strategy and great pit work. I think he will win anyway, now that Renault has had to remove the high tech front end stabilizing device that gave them such an advantage earlier in the year.

 

[stan_deezy]

Re: Schumacher announces his retirement!

That seems very fair points VCd and JB, and when you remember that he left a hugely superior team (Benneton) to join a very disjointed/disorganised Ferrari team and (with a little help from Todt and Brawn) turn them around. Must have been a very risky move for such a young driver, it could all have ended in tears.

He certainly shows signs of brilliance as VCD says, starting at the back of the grid (usually due to cheating ) and then still carving his way through the grid.

I'd like to think that his memory isn't tainted by some of the debacles that him and the team have managed to get themselves embroilled in.

History is written by the victor but I wonder who will write Schumacher's?

On an aside: the new driver Robert Kubica seems to have come out of nowhere and I wonder if we're seeing the new Schumacher replacement?