"Michael Schumacher has all the charisma of a lump of butter. "

Sorry, but I watch F1 and MS, (Michael is F1 today!) and Sena before him, to watch him drive. I could care less if he even talked with the media! The man is the Mozart of F1!

 

Good to see him taking a leaf out of Jackie Stewart's book by leaving while still at the top of his game. A divisive character, in my book undoubtedly great and thankfully flawed (think how dull life would have been if he didn't have the odd aberration and Ferrari weren't the bad guys!).

His ability to create such a passionate and loyal team around him gives a pretty good indication that as a human being he can't be all that bad - I've always thought that he's been handicapped in the popularity stakes from the word go in English speaking countries simply by being German (and not getting waitresses pregnant in broom-cupboards a al Boris Becker).

Hope he manages to follow JYS's example and fills the void somehow.

 

Is it not all about winning?
To do this you need to bend the rules, and on occasion break them.
Like him or not, you need to respect what the man has done consistently throughout his career.
They stated after his speech that he has as many first place wins as 2 to 6 combined.
He has set a bar.

 

Funny, you Brits dont stop to call him the ugly German.

Is this your way to handle your frustration for watching 16 years of Formel-Schumi?

Should he better have the charisma of , ehhmm, ....... what was his name........Damon Hill??

 

I'm surprised that no one has brought up the cars he has been driving ! MS is undoubtedly very talented, but he has been sitting in the best seat in F1 for several years now. I don't think he would have those records with any other team, and I think several drivers would have been dominant in the Ferraris of the last few years....as Dick Vitale says, "Serendipity Baby!"

 

No doubt MS had the best car in the field the last several years (well except for 05 maybe - but that could have just been the tires) but there is a reason that Ferrari had the best car - Michael Schumacher. MS is known as a fantastic test driver, very able to to communicate the cars behavior and needs to the mechanics and engineers, this creates those fabulous cars.

 

...and that is the key. He is not only super-quick, as somebody else pointed out, he knows how to analyze his own telemetry and adjust to what it says. And he reads that telemetry in the evening, instead of stumbling back to his room in the wee hours... Sure, Schumi drives a fantastic car, but how good was it when Todt, Brawn, Byrne... and Schumi... showed up at Ferrari? A world champ by any other name is a world champ. A seven-time world champ by any other name is... Schumi...
Pete

 

MS has been so successful because he built the team that calls itself Ferrari. He did not inherit a championship winning car. In fact, he inherited a dog of a car.

 

I was thinking Nigel Mansell myself. Met him recently during a GP Masters investor event. He kept nodding off in the cockpit during passenger swaps.

I'm not British - I just live here.

 

Ferrari wasn't keen on keeping him. Luca di Montezemolo forced him out. Did you see Schumi get out of the car and avoid di Montzemelo?

 

I have changed my mind somewhat about him after reading an article in this week's Autoweek. Apparently he has given over $50 million (as in five-zero) to charity in the last 4 years, without announcing any of it. This was found after someone went into his tax records. Maybe his on track behavior was not always gentlemanly but it takes a certain kind of person to give away that much money without making any mention of it.

 

I was aware that he gave $10,000,000 to the Tsunami relief fund (much more than many countries!), but did not know about the rest.
Pete

 

I used to be a Ferrari fan and rooted for Michael Schumacher through most of 1997. I had forgiven him for punting Damon Hill in Adelaide '94. When he tried to punt Villeneuve off the track in Jerez '97 I did a 180, and his on-track behaviour ever since, culminating in his Monaco Rascasse parking incident, refusal to have a worthy teammate, Ferrari team orders, FIA favouritism towards Ferrari (i.e. in only this year, mass dampers and Monza penalty to Alonso) all continued to put asterisks (in my mind and heart anyway) next to all his records. F1 is IF backwards, I feel Senna was the best, but we were not given the opportunity to see some legendary battles. I feel Senna would have won at least 3 more titles (at Michael's expense). Senna was also no loveable guy on track, but I feel he was far more 'human' than Michael. Michael's skill speaks for itself, I have seen him race 4 times, he is an incredible driving talent, but his ethics ? I'm happy he's leaving. I have saved a bottle of Ferrari (not the same company) champagne that a friend in Italy sent me in 1997 (before Jerez). I have been saving it all this time waiting for the last race of this season. It will taste VERY good. As for Luca and Ferrari, I believe once Michael is gone, the drain away from Maranello will bring them their just desserts, especially the way they've orchestrated Michael's departure. First Michael and Brawn, then Todt, Kimi may find that the future Ferrari is not much better than the McLaren of today.

 

When Michael is gone the feeling of emptiness at Ferrari will be very hard to swallow by the mechanics and designers who love him, if for no other reason than he's turned their F1 program from a violin into a Stradivarius, and he's only one of a very few that can play that instrument. I hope that Tuesday church bells will still be heard in Maranello after this season, but I'm pretty sure it won't be as often, or with the joy of today. The Schumi/Luca M. scene after the last race makes it very apparent, and we can only guess why, that something has gone very wrong between MS, Jean T. and Ferrari. Wouldn't it be something to hear an announcement, say, in November, that Schumi has decided to return to Germany and have a go at the championship with BMW, and with Mr. Todt at his side? Hmmmm, I wonder how fast Porsche could take the LMP2 car and roll it into an F1 program...
Pete

 

First off, I believe Luca pushed him out of Ferrari to focus on the future of Ferrari and their F1 program with Kimi as their #1 driver. Michael deserved better.

2. Michael will never receive the accolades he so richly deserves in the British media because he is neither British nor does he drive for a British based team.

3. Is he perfect? No. He has made bad decisions (Monaco during Quali this year as the latest). But it seems to disturb the fans more when it comes from MS because we expect so much more from him as a 7 time Champion. In Hungury, he could have SETTLED for 4th or 5th in his battle with rain tires vs. Heidfelds's dry tires and De La Rosa, but the heart of a Champion and his confidence instinctively told him to race for the most points he could, eventhough he was a lame duck. I think his high confidence irks people a lot. But this is the same driver that came in 2nd with only 1 gear on his lame car during a race!!

4. Michael has had good equipment for many years, but he built the team up to that level. As the oldest member of the F1 driver's, he still the most fit. He tests, goes over data, developes the cars, etc. On his down time, he spends it with his family, unlike other F1 drivers that have been caught out drinking late at night, including Kimi. He started at Benetton with what can be described as a mediocre team and won 2 World Championships. Look what has happened the last few years of Ferrari domination: Many rules have been changed to limit the Ferrari domination resulting in the 2005 single tire rule. In the past 1 1/2 years, the Ferrari has not been the best car out there, but to see him drive inferior machinery gives me a better appreciation of his skills as a race driver.

5. Finally, what he has done off the track cannot be understated. I just picked up the latest edition of Autoweek. We all know that he gave $10,000,000 to the tsunami relief efforts when that happened, but he's given away an additional $40,000,000 in the past 4 years to hospitals in Bosnia, orphanages, etc. All without fanfare and the "Look at Me, Look at Me" attitude we've come to expect from others with significant resources. There are no Michael Schumacher hospital wings or clinics.... this was discovered by reporters perusing and digging into public records in Germany.

My family and I have been fortunate enough to have watched 4 live F1 races over the years in the US and Canada. I for one will miss him and regret that I will never be able to watch him after the Brazilian GP next month.

As a Ferrari and MS fan, I can only hope he stays on with the team in some capacity that is not just a figure head.