- 24 Jul 07, 12:43#10956Schumacher is a cheat with no personality, who had the best car for most of his career, weak team-mates, in weak generation of drivers (except for Hakkinen and maybe Alonso and Raikkonen, to whom he lost when the cars were evenly matched). Schumacher is not a scratch on Senna for example.
Schumacher's competition was weak and team mates were not allowed to challenge him, instead having to act as his rear-gunner. Senna, for example, in an inferior car outclassed him in the first three races of the 1994 season. Senna died and that was his chief rival gone. Ferrari in 1996 were a joke, so there was nothing he could've done. In 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000 he had a car and a team (complete with a team mate who would allow him to win or prevent the opposition from winning) capable of being able to do damage, especially in 1998 on. Who has his rival been since c. 2001? McLaren went down the tubes and he had the best car. For five years it was a question of how many he was going to win. In 2005, with an inferior car, Raikkonen pushed Schumacher all the way, in 2005 and 2006 up comes Alonso with a car just shading the Ferrari for half the season and who loses? Schumacher. There is a strange correlation there. Furthermore, when you think of the things that Senna did in an inferior car, such as: Monaco '84; Portugal '85; Donington '93 etc. it really puts things in perspective.
Schumacher is a Formula One great, certainly the most businessman-like Formula One driver of all time. He did what it took to win and he capitalised on certain situations. Fair enough. I can't fault him for that. However, he is not the greatest Formula One driver of all time. Senna, Clark, Prost, Fangio etc. are the ones who get the honour of vying for that place.
No doubt Schumacher's barmy-army will say Senna was involved in several incidents, however, I'm not sure they can be compared to Schumacher, except maybe in 1994 when Schumacher pulled that stunt on Hill. In 1989 Senna was done out of the title, in 1990 he was nearly screwed again. The officials agreed to switch the pole position and second position place to the other side as the track was filthy. Senna didn't just randomly decide he was going to ram Prost off the track in 1990 (which is what Prost did to Senna in 1989); Schumacher, for fear of being beaten fairly, parked his car at Monaco last year and tried to take off Villenueve in 1997.
In my opinion, Schumacher gets credit for the wrong thing. He is one of the greatest drivers, however, is the greatest leader in Formula One. He went to Ferrari, got in the people he knew well and were good, got the team built around him and got everybody in the team working as hard as they could for him. That is his real achievement.
Ayrton Senna: WDC 1988,
1989, 1990, 1991
McLaren: WCC 1974, 1984, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1998,
1999, 2007McLaren: WDC 1974, 1976, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1998, 1999, 2008
) for far less money and with far less safety than there is today.
) when he told Ferrari he was "going to kick Schumacher's arse" when he signed for 1996.
