Quote Originally Posted by zako85 View Post
Schumacher made plenty achievements, but in my opinion his biggest achievement was starting the trend of "baby drivers" joining F1. He basically said, you will be more likely to win multiple champion titles if you join F1 at the tender age of only 20 years or younger, unlike grown men like Ayrton Senna (came into F1 at age of 23-24) or Damon Hill (much older).

But at the same time Schumacher has done enough of shoddy things to make me consider Hamilton a better driver even already after the 2018 season. What's wrong my Schummy's record? The absolutely despicable 1994 season involving a cheater car from Benetton with illegal launch control system, which Schumacher almost certainly used, removed valve from the fueling system, and the championship deciding collision in the final race. This should should have been Hill's tittle IMHO.

Then in 1997 he crashed into Villeneuve, on purpose again, in order to decide the championship, but this time the FIA was much harsher on him, disqualifying Schummy from the entire season. The great thing about Hamilton is that he was never involved in such scandals. Schummy was involved in two championship deciding collisions and yet we still consider him the greatest of all time? Please..

He did very well in the 2000s, but having Barrichello as a teammate is like having Bottas or Webber in your team, which means not enough competition. I give credit to Hamilton because he had to battle with Rosberg 2013-2016, who was much better than anyone predicted, and then with Vettel-Ferrari in 2017-18.

And let's face facts. During the Ferrari years, nobody was allowed to race him while on the same team. He rightfully earned his way into the team and helped mold it, but the dominance from that point on was assisted by the team. As for the comparison to Hamilton, Hamilton easily wins in the "race hard but clean" category IMHO.

While in the heat of battle he was a great driver, his competitive side would just as often force him into bad decisions that weren't at all sporting. Parking a car at Rascasse comes to mind, and since Mika has entered the thread, why don't we ask him about being put onto the grass at 180 MPH?




But IMHO, NONE of these guys are superhuman, and their records on the track are only part of the story. Not a single one of them won a WDC in a crap car, and both hard work and luck led them to the cars that allowed them titles. There are drivers who never got a good break to find themselves in one of those cars, and others who just had the bad luck of when they made moves to other teams. There is nothing surreal or amazing about those with multiple titles really. If anything I'm more impressed that they were (or are) fortunate enough to drive for a team that can consistently put hardware under them that is capable of winning those titles.

On the flip side, there has to be a great driver in the seat to provide good racing. And when the cars were closely matched, Schumi and The Häkk gave us some great racing to watch at the front of the pack. Both great drivers in their day, but also both vastly aided in their success by the cars they were driving. And human, subject to flaws all of us have.