Team-mate battles of 2013

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Originally Posted by i_max2k2

Obviously you're also wearing some technicolor glasses with the way you paint Schumacher. In all fairness, at the end we all realized Schumacher was past his prime. The lack of reliability from Mercedes and/or incidents in a race hurt his chances more then anything else did. To me a fair comparison would be how they performed in a race when both had a incident free and reliable race, that of course happens less, but I'm sure most would agree with me, that Schumacher overall was comparable with Nico over the last 2yrs for sure.

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Ignoring his first career which was the best any driver has achieved, I can't say I agree he was comparable to Nico over the last two years. Then again it depends on how you interpret comparable? Comparable in a way he matched Nico or comparable in a way he was obviously past his prime and Nico came out on top? Its true he suffered perhaps more mechanical issues than Nico, but then again having watched every race in this period I tend to remember the races for what they are rather than looking at a points tally. Overall points rarely tell the full story regardless of which driver you are comparing. Schumacher made an awful lot of mistakes in his second career. Mistakes many of us know he wouldn't have made first time around. Silly uncharacteristic crashes and tangles, and its these that often had me wondering whether it was a good idea coming back. There were occasions where he out drove Nico, but this was rare and raw qualifying pace often lacked.

My summary of his second career was that he made a big mistake coming back. He hid his disappointment by claiming he was just having fun and wouldn't be driving if he thought he didn't still have it. Unfortunately I think we saw glimpses of the Schumacher of old, but we also saw a driver way past his prime trying to keep up with guys 20 years younger most of the time. You can't take his stats away from him and he'll always be a legend, but I think he either should have continued a couple more years after 2006, or stay retired with his reputation less dented.

you actually have to watch the races, you can't just copy and paste where they finished in the championship.

schumacher had the worst luck of anyone last year except maybe hamilton. the split the difference in qualifying head to head and in races where they both finished.

I'm not going to get into a arguement with a Schumacher fan. I've given up wasting oxygen doing that.

All I will say is that it's hypocritical and foolish to go on about him being the best of all time because he scored more points than anyone else in 7 years but then when he's beaten over a 3 year period by his team mate, it's not down to Schumacher but bad luck.

Head... Brick... Wall... Banging.

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Originally Posted by henners88

My summary of his second career was that he made a big mistake coming back. He hid his disappointment by claiming he was just having fun and wouldn't be driving if he thought he didn't still have it. Unfortunately I think we saw glimpses of the Schumacher of old, but we also saw a driver way past his prime trying to keep up with guys 20 years younger most of the time. You can't take his stats away from him and he'll always be a legend, but I think he either should have continued a couple more years after 2006, or stay retired with his reputation less dented.

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I don't think that Michael was so awfully far past his prime. Just look at the man, he's fit and looks like someone in the early thirties, rather than one, who's next milestone will be 50. What killed him was, that he was robbed of what made him such an outstanding driver in his first career - testing.
In his earlier career, he put in ridiculous mileage every year, incessantly testing until the car was exactly like he wanted it to be. He knew those beasts inside out. The Mercedes cars he came back to, were utter crapboxes, just like most cars that Loic Bigois designed and he got nearly no testing mileage, so he never could make the best of them.

Another thing that gets overlooked. When he retired, F1 cars were still on those ridiulous groove tires, but still looked like real F1 cars instead of the step-nosed fugly contraptions with puny rear-wings and snow-plow front wings. That's why you can't compare Schumacher and Raikkonen for instance. The two years that Kimi was crashing rally cars into trees, the cars didn't change much, while Schumachers last Ferrari and his first Merc were worlds apart and he didn't have the unlimited testing time anymore to adapt to it. It says a lot that despite his age, Schumacher improved over his 3 years at Merc. His last year was IMHO his best in the Merc.

Dj Byte makes some good points there. Schu was not as horribly outgunned as some critics make it out to have been. There were a number of factors preventing him from reaching his potential.

Its a level playing field now.

it is definately a seriously exciting year for the f1 family and fans roll on the next round :)

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Originally Posted by Knock-on

Its a level playing field now.

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Wow, so that must make vettel the greatest f1 driver forever and ever.

No, it makes the Red Bull package with Vettel managing that package on the track the best out there by a mile.

Do you honestly think that if Fred or Lewis were in Webbers car that Seb would win? :crazy:

Theres no battle in the Ferrari and Mercedes team.