As
the legend hangs up his boots tomorrow, yet another amazing chapter in the
racing history will be closed, hopefully not forever. For many from this generation, very
little about Schumacher’s greatness is known considering his last win came in the
year 2006 and the second journey,
according to what many would put it off as one great flop show, which btw.. I'm
sure the Alonso's... Hamiltons... Vettels.. know for a fact that the story
would have turned out different had he had a slightly better car. But having followed the sport closely since
last 15 years and watched every single race, I can bet with anything that he
has been one of the best drivers to have ever competed. Some say Ayrton Senna
is the arguably the greatest of all time, well,to be honest, I have never seen
Senna race although I have seen numerous videos to make myself believe that he is
surely at par with Schumacher and can be pinned as the top drivers F1 has ever
produced.
Michael
has been a true inspiration when it comes to sheer determination and passion,
the fact that at 43 years of age he challenged himself to driving a monster at
well above 300kmph for roughly two hours literally getting thrown out by the
Lateral G forces ,close to 5 G's sometimes and at the end losing fluids up to 3
kilos every other weekend and not to forget the fellow racers who are well
below his age says a lot about this bloke!!. If not for some bad luck and power
under those wheels of Mercedes powered car, 2012 surely would have turned out
to be a different story.
Having said that, watching him race every single lap
this year has been a true joy, be it holding back Vettel or Hamilton or
Raikkonen for many laps or putting up an
amazing pole position show in Monaco or the Podium finish in Valencia, it has
been a true delight.
Facts
never lie... so for someone with 308 race starts, 91 wins and 68 poles under his belt with seven
drivers title is a record which will take some time before it gets broken. The
fact that those 68 laps were the most perfect one time laps tells us about perfection in his driving and the skill
to replicate the same performance on various circuits at different conditions. One must remember that
back then, the drivers did not get multiple opportunities like today’s
Qualifying format to set a quick time on the sheet. All they had was a trial
lap followed by the final run, so to do that on 68 occasions is pretty
impressive. I should also consider myself to be fortunate to have seen the dancing
Ferrari on a rainy day. When it rains, no one can even bother to get anywhere near
him. It’s like he has a sixth sense of where the actual grip is available and
uses every single mm of it and thereby pushing the cars to the limit. These were done in not cars of today’s F1
wherein monitoring every single detail is very easy and the safety of the
driver and the car has a whole has taken new heights, but in those sheer
monsters of 3,5 V8 and a 3L V10 in which he won his titles. These cars were
also not so easy to drive unlike the ones of today where most of the stuff can be altered by remote access.
Five of those seven titles have come in a great fashion. If you look back at the statistics, the points difference b/w him and the second driver is almost 50% higher. This was the dominance, the dominance which was so powerful that they went on to win the constructors for five years in a row.
The strategy of Ferrari
crew has also played a major role in his success. The brains of Ross brawn and
Jean Todt, the amazing fuel and tyre strategies, pit stops of course,
everything was so damn perfect. Not to forget the belief they had in their
driver to make his own decisions while on the track. I remember on numerous
occasions he turned down the radio call of coming into pits and took his own
decisions.
One of the best of all races has to be the Interlagos
2006 where he started 8th on the grid, made up two places before getting a puncture
from Fisichella to drop all the way back in the grid. The gap was so much that
you could notice Massa(who was leading the race) a few seconds behind him. Just
when everyone thought that his then last
race turned out to be a disaster, he surprised everyone with a fourth place
finish asserting his position as one of the best to have ever played this
sport. Most of the laps from then, went on to be the fastest laps of the race,
after every single lap, a flash would pop up on tv screen saying 'Fastest Lap M
Schumacher' .. finally finishing a credible 4th place. If not for the first
Ferrari engine failure in 5 years in Suzuka GP 2006, he would have made his title tally to Eight.
Schumacher Brazilian GP 2006
Records held by the God !!
| Record | Number |
|---|---|
| Championship titles | 7 (1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004) |
| Consecutive titles | 5 (2000–2004) |
| Championship won with most races left | 6 (2002) |
| Largest championship-winning margin (pre-2010 points system) | 67 points (2002) |
| Race wins | 91 |
| Consecutive wins[N 1] | 7 (2004, Europe–Hungary) |
| Wins in a season | 13 (72%) (2004) |
| Wins in a season for a runner-up[N 2] | 7 (2006) |
| Wins at Monza (Formula One) | 5 |
| Wins at Spa (Formula One) | 6 |
| Wins in Canada (Formula One) | 7 |
| Wins with one team | 72 (Ferrari) |
| Wins at the same Grand Prix | 8 (France) |
| Different Grands Prix won | 22 |
| Longest time between first and last wins | 14 years, 32 days |
| Total years with a win | 15 (1992–2006) |
| Consecutive years with a win | 15 (1992–2006) |
| Second places | 43 |
| Consecutive top two finishes | 15 (Brazil 2002–Japan 2002) |
| Podiums (Top 3 finishes) | 155 |
| Podium finishes in a season | 17 (100%) (2002) |
| Consecutive podium finishes | 19 (US 2001–Japan 2002) |
| Championship points | 1,560 |
| Points finishes | 220 |
| Consecutive points finishes | 24 (Hungary 2001–Malaysia 2003) |
| Races / Laps / Distance led | 142 races / 5,111 laps / 24,144 km[196] |
| Pole positions | 68 |
| Front row starts | 116 |
| Fastest laps | 77 |
| Fastest laps in a season[N 3] | 10 (2004) |
| Doubles (Pole and win) | 40 |
| Hat tricks (Pole, win and fastest lap) | 22 |
| Hat tricks in a season | 5 in 2004[N 4] |
| Races with one team | 181 (Ferrari) |
Source: Wiki
It will surely take sometime to get used to not seeing MSC again on the starting grid,
millions of fans will miss him irresective of him starting last or first, bad or good car..!!
Some of the most will be......
1) The Ecstatic podium jump, although been a while now.. still have fresh memories of the same.
2) Michael, The Rain Master.... On any given rainy day, expect him to pull a rabbit out of the hat.
3) The Commitment to win, whatever it takes.
4) Epic Overtakes.
5) The Technique of holding cars, (although the latest rule have spoiled the entire thing of leaving a car distance width)
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