Who thinks Schumacher finally should retire?

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Originally Posted by Garry Walker

Well, this thread is awfully quiet lately.

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One podium isn't much to talk about :D

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Originally Posted by rjbetty

Yeah, in Australia he qualified 4th with Rosberg 7th, was quicker in the race and would have finished 5th probably. Rosbger was on course for 8th till he lost that.

In Malaysia Michael was 3rd on the grid with Rosberg 8th (becoming 7th). In the race Michael collided with Grosjean and that wasn't necessarily even his fault. He may have finished only 10th, but notice despite his setback he still finished 29sec ahead!

China was the only race in which Rosberg had a convincing advantage over Schumacher, though Rosberg deserves big credit.

In Bahrain Michael was not really much slower in qualifying, but probably equal or sloghtly quicker in the race (just like a typical 2011 race) but Michael had to start from the back through no fault of his own.

Another 2011 style race in Spain with Michael a bit behind in qualifying but matching Nico's pace in the race? (I don't know I didn't watch)

Michael was quicker all weekend in Monaco, and given the that Nico Rosberg hounded Webber all the way in the race and spoke of having a quicker car, and given that Michael tends to do better in races than in qualifying compared to Rosberg, it is not unreasonable at all to suggest he could have, and probably would have won.

In Canada Michael matched Nico and may have edged him without any problems. I certainly don't believe Nico had much advantage there.

In Valencia Michael was slightly slower by his own admission in qualifying, but finished 3rd in the race. Rosberg was 6th.

At Silverstone Michael fairly creamed Rosberg, had over +0.5sec faster race lap and finished 28sec ahead (also average of more than 0.5 sec/lap). Michael also gridded 3rd, 10 places ahead of Rosberg.

Conclusion: Nico was only clearly better in China.
Michael was clearly better in Australia, Malaysia, Monaco and Silverstone.
On balance, the rest of the races are pretty much even?

Yet people will tell you Nico is running rings around Michael...

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That's actually a really great assessment. It sums up exactly that team battle. To me, Schumi has been the better of the two drivers so far this season, and incredibly unlucky.

Aw thanks, but I do feel I've been a bit harsh on Nico.

But Michael's racecraft does seem to have improved. The only thing he's done wrong this year is crash into Senna IIRC, and possibly his part in the collision with Grosjean.

In year 1, his average +0.4sec qualifying gap to Nico and scoring half his points was representative of Schumacher's true level.

In year 2, though Michael did start ahead again only 4 times, the average gap was more like +0.2sec. But the races were much improved and he would have outscored Nico last year, but for rusty racecraft. This was totally understandable to me, and in most of the incidents, the errors were caused by being just a few percent out, meaning only a slight improvement could have cut out most of them there and then.

This year, the mistakes have indeed been mostly cut out, and now it's bad reliability (even by 80's/90's standards it hasn't been good) that's robbed him so badly. In the best case scenario his results could read

5th, 6th(?), 2nd, 7th, 8th, 1st, 3rd, 7th = 92pts
Nico's might be
8th, (no pts), 1st, 5th, 7th, 2nd, 6th, 6th, (no pts) = 77pts

And in qualifying Michael has already matched his previous years tally of outqualifying Nico 4 times - and we are less than halfway through 2012. The average gap is also much smaller now, I'd say Michael is +0.1sec slower now.

James Allen in saying on his blog, very confidently, that Shumacher has signed with Merc for another year and he'll be staying put.

No. I was wrong about Mike, and he can keep up with Nico. He's REALLY had some bad luck this season.

http://i.minus.com/ib2hbkBg4gWONM.gif

^ Its a shame that it needs to rain for the cars to get sideways - less aero more sideways, pleeeez :)

Ok, back to the thread...

I really was thinking that in those first two years, that he was destroying his image of being the best F1 racer ever, after failing to take much of anything to notice.

However, the poor man really has had some horrid luck this year, but for the past several races, he has hit form, changing my opinion. :D :idea: I wonder if he can retain his former glory, as it would be a wonderful sight to get to see!
Aside from Nico's win, Michael's experience is showing excellently and it is very apparent that he has still got it in him, in contrast to the previous two seasons. :roll:

Dream on people. He's had a couple of OK races in a car that is capable of winning. The podium he got was a fluke but well done to him. However, his team mate is mediocre and he still struggles.

Points make prizes or have we forgotten that.

Yeah, but it wasn't his fault his gearbox packed up in Oz, The Pit Stop was messed up in China, the Dumb Racing Solution failed in Bahrain and Canada and something else went wrong in Monaco (is it so unreasonable to suggest he could have held Webber behind him - not like he hasn't done it before, and also DC did just that in 2002 and Bernoldi did it in 2001?)

Only in China was Nico definitely quicker in race conditions.
Only in China, Bahrain, Spain and Valencia was Nico definitely quicker in Quali.

In Silverstone qualifying, he could have easily been on pole, alonso and webber both did several laps on inters before setting their fastest time, Michaels P3 was on his first flying lap, he definitely got it.