One question, which people quite rightly ignored the first time of asking, not enough Woppit? Not really the time or place IMO.

Regardless of personal opinion, he was a great driver and I wish him all the best for a full recovery.

He obliterated D Hill, so badly. One still has bum sore.

I thnk it was because he wasn’t Nigel Mansell, and then he wasn’t Damon Hill, and he was German which makes you an instant panto villian in some of the Red Tops

I quite like the quote from Clarkson.

Maybe some of the negativity is due to his willingness to deliberately take out an opponent? Helped him the championship a few times I suppose.

F1 when he was in his pomp did all seem to be getting a bit like the TDF with Indurain – a bunch of cyclists/F1 drivers follow him around France/the track..

Probably said more about the quality of the opposition?

It was Schu & Co, the only ones who could beat Adrian Newey designs. Other combinations didn’t or couldn’t advance their set up into such a high level.

These days Vettel / Newey Co bully all others.

All the happiness in life can be taken away in a single moment no matter who you are.

Get well soon Mr Schumacher as your family needs you and we need you to spend your money. But avoid dangerous sports if you want to stay alive like stupid celebrities. 🙄

I liked Schuey early on in his career, when I still watched. Mainly because of the utterly heroic driving in second-class cars – Benetton wasn’t it? IIRC there was one race where he was miles out in front and his car got stuck in 5th gear or something, and he still managed to win. And many other instances of brilliant driving such as sudden heavy rain on the wrong tyres, or staying out on dry tyres in the rain.

The infamous cutting up incident – well I thought that was 50/50 to be honest. Although hard to know how impartial I was being at the time. Hill though was a bit of a snivelly git though I always thought.

Woppit – first of all he arrived in F1 as a young German without a lot of the media training they have these days and without a great grasp of English. So when interviewed he answered in a very direct Germanic style which came across as arrogant and conceited. Then there were a few questionable episodes in his first & second careers which also didn’t help.

But regardless of that he still won 7 world titles, was a key part of the Ferrari team and worked tirelessly with them & all their suppliers to maximise every possible aspect of the car’s performance, gave brilliant technical feedback (apparently, never told me anything!), could deliver pace on demand, took driver fitness to a new level and generally defined an era of F1. IMO the positives far outweigh the negatives.

Whether you like him or not, there’s still a man fighting for his life and anyone with an ounce of compassion would be willing him to pull through.

ETA – it was never ‘just the car’ either. His performances in the RoC have always been great, I saw him destroy a field of other drivers in a kart race etc etc.

thepurist, you’re selling the Ferrari era a bit short there given that when he arrived it was to drive this pig:

He was a breath of fresh air when he arrived, I’m sure we’d heard about him, Frentzen and Wendlinger as the new next-big-things from the Sauber sportscar programme long before he hit F1, think I saw him at Silverstone and he looked a bit special there – then he jumps into the Jordan 191 at Spa of all places and sticks it on 7th first time out, just a fantastic display of natural talent. Gutted he killed the clutch on raceday!

IIRC there was one race where he was miles out in front and his car got stuck in 5th gear or something, and he still managed to win.

Correctomundo, Barcelona – he even had to stop for tyres, stuck in fifth, and managed the take off, which is pretty nuts, really. I’m sure I heard that no-one believed the team when they said about it afterwards, they had to dig out the telemetry to prove it. 🙂

Whether you like him or not, there’s still a man fighting for his life and anyone with an ounce of compassion would be willing him to pull through.

The bottom line, for my money.

Let us hope that he should recover.

did he or did he not crash into damon hill after he slid off the track.damon hill just needed to finish so schu just rammed into him o both did not finish and schu won the championship.i may remember it wrong though

Maybe it’s just me then, but I can only see eveything that’s wrong with it, and I’m not the ‘offended’ type!

What is the “everything” that’s wrong with it though ?

I’ve looked for something wrong with it, but I honestly can’t find anything.

I must confess at least a slight moue of distaste at JC making brain injury jokes when Schumi is still hanging in the balance.

Obviously as a friend of Schumacher, he would probably know better about what’s acceptable.

Edit- Plus it was followed by ….

In other words, it’s possible after even a big brain bang to go back to exactly how you were before.

What is the “everything” that’s wrong with it though ?

I’ve looked for something wrong with it, but I honestly can’t find anything.

I can only say what it seems to me; I can be a sensitive soul though 😀

Timing – less than 24hours ago & the guy might still die.

Context – as a tweet, there wasn’t any. If at the end of a more sympathetic sentence or spoken word then it would have been completely different and probably worth a chuckle. As a blunt ‘tweet’ it just looks like a flippant and tasteless attempt to look funny.

Again though, just how it struck me, we all interpret things in different ways!

Obviously as a friend of Schumacher, he would probably know better about what’s acceptable.

He certainly knows better what he thinks is acceptable, just as I know better what I think is acceptable. That the two might not be the same doesn’t really matter, in the larger scheme of things.

Agreed bn

Context – as a tweet, there wasn’t any

Which is the problem. I suspect you had to be able to link it to Richard Hammond’s head injury after the dragster crash and his recovery from that.

I suspect you had to be able to link it to Richard Hammond’s head injury after the dragster crash and his recovery from that.

No, I did get that link 😉

did he or did he not crash into damon hill after he slid off the track.damon hill just needed to finish so schu just rammed into him o both did not finish and schu won the championship.i may remember it wrong though

Was more 50/50 than that imo.
Hill should have waited and not gone for a gap that was bound to close. Check out how far Hill’s car is alongside at the point of contact.

Anyway, hope he recovers soon – Come on Schumi!

he rammed a few to make sure he won
He had a win at all costs attitude that was less than endearing

Hope he recovers though

People seem to forget schumachers early career and assume he was royal trained to Ferrari and into the best car in the field. The reality is he fought tooth and nail early on and deserved his later success. Of his 7 championships I’d say only three maybe four were won in a car that was the best in the field. His first two with Benneton we’re won in a v8 powered car when most of the rest of the field were running v10’s, so it was way down on power and outright speed. And Schumacher had to exploit the manoeuvrability of the car to its maximum to win. Then he moved to Ferrari, a team that hadn’t won a championship for many years, he built a team around him and turned the team around practically single handidly. I think that at least the first 2 championships for Ferrari, certainly the first, we’re won before the car came properly good, and certainly not the best car in the field. You can see this in the relative results between him and Barrichello. Early on when the car was a bit of a pig Barrichello was nowhere as Schumacher was winning, but later on as the car came good and easier to drive, Barrichello was suddenly snapping at his heals.

The only thing for me that prevents him winning the best driver of all time accolade is the fact that Hakkinen and Alonso were able to take two championships off him a piece where to me he seemed to fail or was unable to step up and successfully defend, so he wasn’t unbeatable.

And of course there were a few incidents where he behaved in an unsportsmanlike way, but he was punished for that and I can forgive sportsmen for that to a certain extent. The desire to do anything to win, even if it distorts their judgement from time to time, is to be expected. Yes, he did crash into Hill, twice I think. First time it was successful, the second time it wasn’t as he didn’t damage a Hills car enough to stop him continuing. However this behaviour certainly wasn’t new to the sport, both Senna and Prost had done similar things in the past, as well as other unsporting behaviour, and it hasn’t ended up defining their records. People tend to remember those drivers for all the fabulous driving they produced over their careers rather than the two or three moments of desperation. I hope Schumacher’s career will ultimately be remembered in the same way.

I Hope he makes a full recovery.

Yes, he did crash into Hill, twice I think. First time it was successful, the second time it wasn’t as he didn’t damage a Hills car enough to stop him continuing

The second one you’re thinking of was Villeneuve, at Jerez, I think.

Wobbliscott – you forget the custom Bridgestone tires no one knew he/ ferrari had until recently. 😉

Petit arguments aside, I’ve been deeply moved by this. Sincerely hoping Schumi battles thru this.

Context – as a tweet, there wasn’t any.

There was some context provided in his next tweet.

Although that’s a problem with twitter in general, not enough space for full explanations so things get misunderstood.

he rammed a few to make sure he won
He had a win at all costs attitude that was less than endearing

Sounds familiar?

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvSgJDIsRnc#t=16[/video]

Incidentally, never a fan but best wishes to Schumacher for a speedy and full recovery.

Don’t give a toss what he’s done in the past wether I agreed with what he did or not, hope he pulls through. Some one’s dad, husband, son lying their.

Lost a close relative a few months ago,after suffering similar brain trauma,after been punched and hitting his head while out cold.images of him in intensive care, pre and post brain surgery will stay with me for life.
Hope he pulls through and positive thoughts to his family too.

Best wishes to him. Not a good situation.

Love him or hate him as a driver (bit of both from me) this is tragic lived life in one of the worlds most dangerous sports and came out the other end ‘relatively’ unscathed, to have this happen on a family holiday, my thoughts are with him and his family

Heard an interesting interview with Murray Walker earlier on the radio where he talked about lots of former world champions who exited the stage earlier than expected after coming through such a “dangerous” sport unscathed.

I’m not enough of a fan of f1 to have a strong opinion of him as a driver but it seems lots of folk who had personal and professional dealings with him speak highly of him so that’s good enough for me to wish him well. It would be a pity to lose someone like him at 44.

I’m not enough of a fan of f1 to have a strong opinion of him as a driver but it seems lots of folk who had personal and professional dealings with him speak highly of him so that’s good enough for me to wish him well. It would be a pity to lose someone like him at 44.

A few years ago I was lucky enough to spend a few months staying at a nice hotel where I frequently met an ‘old’ guy whose son was very good friends with MC (lots of photos shown & stories shared etc). From what I gathered he is a very nice but more than anything, ridiculously generous and kind chap.

Mr Woppit – Member 
So – Why don’t people like Schumacher? Is it because he kept winning all the time?

I will answer / bite

The ramming incident mentioned above meant Schumacher won the world championship instead of Hill. Schumacher had a handy lead in the last race but damaged his car in such a way as he wasnt going to be able to finish and Hill who was behind went to overtake and Schumacher rammed his car into Hill as he made the pass. The incident was investigated but the stewards waved it off (bottled it totally) as a “racing incident”. That would have been a maiden world championship for Hill (fortuntaley he went on to win one). So German rams Brit to deny hi.m World Championship isn’t going to win you many supporters in the UK.

The news from Grenoble seems to be more negative in the French press than the UK. It is a terrible irony that he excelled at one of the most dangeros sports there is and suffers such an injury whilst skiing. Thoughts and prayers with Schumacher and his family.

Skiing itself has proportionately fewer fatalities than cycling or swimming, says Dr Mike Langran, a GP who founded the website ski-injury.com. The figures he cites suggest that the death rate for skiing is 2.07 deaths per million people skiing, compared to 29.4 per million cycling, and 72.7 per million swimming.

Interesting stat from BBC website.

I am not worried about what he did as a driver, in his job, yet he ends up in this situation doing something that he loves…. sound potentially familiar?

As a keen skier, biker and someone that loves to see people out there pushing their limits I am wishing him all the best.

Wobbliscott – you forget the custom Bridgestone tires no one knew he/ ferrari had until recently.

And the traction control he had at Benetton…

He was good but also lucky. Had Ayrton lived he would have taken the next two championships (at least) and if Mika hadn’t had his massive crash his career, while brilliant, would probably have led to more championships. Add to that he had a team mate who wasn’t allowed to race him and had to pull up to let him pass on occasion, plus the infamous ramming incidents and parking the car into the armco at Monaco… That’s why he’s not in my top three.

Also saying Ayrton performed similar ramming incidents is a joke. Sure Ayrton was a spoilt brat but he was usually fair and as we all know the situation at Suzuka was hardly that.

French TV tonight

Impact broke helmet in two
He was skiing fast (tv images suggested he was on a fairly flat section)
Surgery didn’t achieve everything hoped for (suggesting additional operation may be considered)

JCL +1

Benetton argued that although traction control (remember it was a MASSIVE advantage has shown) was found on their car- it was disabled/they couldnt afford to remove it. They were let off! Ayton was passionate about safety of others.

I wonder if one day someone within F1 will turn out some of the secrets.