Maybe Schumacher's return wasn't all that rubbish?

I have always thought of Nico as one of the top tier drivers at least, ever since his fastest lap at his debut in a Williams, was it at Bahrain? What was lacking was probably his race pace, which has improved quite a lot now. His pole and flag-to-flag victory at China last year should have been indication enough that he's top class. I knew Lewis would have a tougher teammate than he's had at Mclaren.

But I think what's massively getting overlooked is that it's only been 6 races, and this is still a new team, a new car, new team members, new bosses, new environment, new everything for Lewis. Like Brawn said, it takes time to settle down. For example little things like how there are different and extra settings for brake diff or how the car behaves at its rear. There's a video of Lewis describing it during winter testing. Nico has been in the team since 2010, so is already well versed with these things and now it's second nature to him.

Considering all this, Lewis did a mammoth job outqualifying Nico in the first 3 races! Nico simply upped his game after the Chinese GP, and now Lewis has to do the same. Lewis is doing a MUCH better job than MS if we take qualifying positions and points table into account. I'd say Merc GP has the strongest driver pairing in Formula 1 and 2014 should be an interesting season.

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Originally Posted by CaptainRaiden

Lewis is doing a MUCH better job than MS if we take qualifying positions and points table into account.

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Yes but it's pretty clear that Mercedes has a vastly superior car in comparison to anything they came up with between 2010-12.

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Originally Posted by Alfa Fan

Yes but it's pretty clear that Mercedes has a vastly superior car in comparison to anything they came up with between 2010-12.

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I also made the point about the car but in terms of performance between drivers its a lot closer this season so far than it was during Michaels three seasons. So far I repeat. There were times when we were questioning whether the drivers were driving the same car when there was a gulf between performances. Michael had some good races in 2012 and Nico seemed off the boil most of the time too. I don't know how we can compare Hamilton with Schumacher when the cars are apparently a lot different, Nico is driving better than ever, and Lewis is at the start of a new challenge. The age gap also comes into it too.

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Originally Posted by Alfa Fan

Yes but it's pretty clear that Mercedes has a vastly superior car in comparison to anything they came up with between 2010-12.

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Like I said in my earlier post, "if we take qualifying positions and points table into account" so far. Nothing to do with car performance. Schumacher was never up 3-0 in qualifying on Rosberg at any point in all the three years, neither was he this ahead in the points table, keeping in mind that this is still a new team and new car for Lewis.

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Originally Posted by CaptainRaiden

Like I said in my earlier post, "if we take qualifying positions and points table into account" so far. Nothing to do with car performance. Schumacher was never up 3-0 in qualifying on Rosberg at any point in all the three years, neither was he this ahead in the points table, keeping in mind that this is still a new team and new car for Lewis.

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I think based on 2012 Hamilton-Button experience it would be wise to be careful about points table comparison. Rosberg and Schumacher were certainly very comparable last year, if not with a slight edge to Schumi. In the same way Rosberg and Hamilton have been comparable this year, regardless of points.

This is "History"?

It's a grey area isn't it? Schumacher has retired, so it can't be "current" F1. But Rosberg and Hamilton are still active so it can't be called "History". As Schumacher is, or should be, the focus of this threaid I suppose the needle just swings towards "History".

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Originally Posted by henners88

As far as Schumacher goes I'm not sure how we can really compare. This season the car is the best one Merc have produced so far and although Schuey found his old pace in 2012, he also demonstrated his age far too often. He did ok but was far from his past brilliance IMO. The lack of in season testing, a team with its own test track, and 3 years out of the sport, not to mention being a man in his 40's, I still think he made a mistake returning. What we have now at Mercedes is a more exciting prospect and I expect 2014 to bring a very competitive package indeed. :)

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Hardly a mistake. He loved racing. Had half a billion dollars to his name but all he wanted to do was test himself again.

I'm not sure why people bring up the testing thing and somehow attributing his success to that. All teams were allowed to test in-season and simply having a large budget doesn't equal success otherwise Ferrari would have won the last three seasons with Alonso and Toyota would have been dominant in the mid-2000's.

It's becoming clear now that Alonso and Hamilton aren't the new Senna and Prost as predicted six years ago but the new Villeneuve and Hill. Maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but there's a lot of truth to it.

Hamilton was widely touted as the best driver on the grid before the season began, and now he's saying he can't figure out the brakes six races into the season??? Schumacher, Prost, Senna all figured out how to drive around problems when they found the setup sub-optimal. It was the tyres he blamed for being put away by Button in 2011, now the brakes in 2013. What's Mercedes paying all this money for?

Remember, he got beat by Button 2/3 years and now Perez looks to be slowly but surely getting the better of Button. I don't think this era is as strong as people have claimed in recent years.

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Originally Posted by zako85

Six races into season is to early to make any conclusions. As for Schumacher's return, it's really hard to tell now if this was the same Schumacher we have been seeing in 1992-2007.

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Is it really hard to tell? He came back at 40 after a 3.5 year lay off where the only track driving he did was recreationally. Michael Jordan was a shadow of his former self when he came back but no-one questions his accomplishments.

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Originally Posted by faster69

Hardly a mistake. He loved racing. Had half a billion dollars to his name but all he wanted to do was test himself again.

I'm not sure why people bring up the testing thing and somehow attributing his success to that. All teams were allowed to test in-season and simply having a large budget doesn't equal success otherwise Ferrari would have won the last three seasons with Alonso and Toyota would have been dominant in the mid-2000's.

It's becoming clear now that Alonso and Hamilton aren't the new Senna and Prost as predicted six years ago but the new Villeneuve and Hill. Maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but there's a lot of truth to it.

Hamilton was widely touted as the best driver on the grid before the season began, and now he's saying he can't figure out the brakes six races into the season??? Schumacher, Prost, Senna all figured out how to drive around problems when they found the setup sub-optimal. It was the tyres he blamed for being put away by Button in 2011, now the brakes in 2013. What's Mercedes paying all this money for?

Remember, he got beat by Button 2/3 years and now Perez looks to be slowly but surely getting the better of Button. I don't think this era is as strong as people have claimed in recent years.

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We're entitled to our opinions on Schumacher and yes I do feel his comeback was a mistake regardless of how it is dressed up. Hamilton putting his poor 2011 performances down to tyres is a new one on me. I thought it was because he crashed loads and lost points due to driver errors. Pace wise he was far ahead of Button and tyres didn't seem to be the issue at all. Oh and btw it was Hamilton who finished ahead of Button in 2 of the 3 years not the other way round lol. We can't all draw our info from the beloved Wikipedia.


Six races in.