A truly incredible race in what is turning out to be a thoroughly entertaining season, following the disappointment of the season opener in Bahrain. There were many talking points from the Chinese Grand Prix " the stunning drives of the two McLaren drivers who secured the first one-two for the team since 2007; the controversial incidents between Hamilton, Vettel, Massa and Alonso in the pit-lane; the questionable decision to deploy the safety for the second time, and also the lacklustre performance of a certain Michael Schumacher, which will be the focus of this article.
Firstly, we must congratulate Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg for their reaching the podium in the treachorous conditions, and it is Rosberg's performance in the race and clinching third position for the second consecutive race which puts further significance on Schumacher's apparent plight. Four races down and the head-to-head between the two Mercedes drivers reads Rosberg 4 " 0 Schumacher, and it shows no sign of letting up at the next race in Barcelona, based on the relative performance of the two. High praise must be given to Rosberg, who has shown his ability to mix it with the big boys this season in a car which is lacking the cutting edge to compete on a regular basis with Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari. Rosberg spent four years in a distinctly average Williams team and on numerous occasions was able to wring the neck of the car to achieve very positive results, but there were always question marks over whether he had the consistency to compete with the other big guns of his generation, namely Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica, on a regular basis. It can be argued that Rosberg is the strongest team-mate that Schumacher has ever had, yet you would still expect the seven-time world champion, who amassed an incredible 91 wins, 68 pole positions and 154 podium finishes during his first career, to run rings around his younger compatriot, even at the ripe old age of 41.
Michael Schumacher is and always will remain one of the sports' greats, and is arguably the greatest sportsman ever to have spawned from Germany. His legacy will never be forgotten no matter how successful or unsuccessful his comeback proves to be. He is the most successful driver in the history of the sport by a considerable margin, and only a fool would write off his chances of success and be critical of someone who has no need to prove himself to anybody. It is fair to say during the early stages of his career, which included the controversial coming-together with Damon Hill at Adelaide in 1994, and again with Jacques Villeneuve at Jerez in '97, I was not a huge fan of his, but I always retained a huge amount of respect for his ability. Football fans would argue that no matter what their allegiance, they would always reserve huge admiration for the greatest talents of their generation, and it is no different here. I think back to Michael's early career and one of the first races I ever saw " the Spanish Grand Prix of 1996. Indeed, we can draw an interesting parallel between Michael's situation then and at the present time. In 1996, Schumacher had left the championship-winning Benetton team to start what would prove to be a hugely successful era with Ferrari over the next decade. When he first joined the team though, things weren't quite so rosy as the 1995 World Champion had to suffer with an uncompetitive and unreliable car which was some way off competing with the benchmark Williams-Renault package. The Spanish Grand Prix of that year saw conditions worse than those in China, and saw the Williams cars of Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve struggle hopelessly to make progress in the downpour. Schumacher was in his element in these conditions, taking it all in his stride. I remember being astounded by his ability to keep his poorly-handling car on the track, and lap so quickly, when those around him were falling like flies. His victory was dominant, and cemented his place at the table among the sports' greats.
Come forward in time fourteen years (and yes, I know that sounds a lot) to this race, and in wet conditions, you would expect Schumacher to excel " tear through the field like a hot knife through butter, no matter what problems he had with his car, and show the young guns how to do it. Indeed, I was fancying a cheeky couple of quid on Schumacher to win this race once I saw the wet conditions before the start of the race. Quite the opposite prevailed, and it is clear that Schumacher is getting immensely frustated with his lack of competitiveness. As I stated, these were the prime conditions for Schumacher to excel, to nullify the flaws and shortcomings in the mechanical and aero package of his car, and show he could still cut it. It is clear that the drivers still show a huge amount of respect to Schumacher, which was evident from his scrap with Lewis Hamilton on lap 16 and 17; but you always felt the outcome was inevitable. The rest of the race showed him getting picked off by the young guns to eventually finish in a lacklustre 10th place, picking up one point.
As we head into a three week break, Schumacher will undoubtedly face critics who will question his decision to return to the sport following a three-year retirement. There are those who will question his mental strength to deal with the modern day circus that is Formula One; there are those who will question his fitness; and there are those who will question his ability. In all these areas there is no doubt that Schumacher ticks all the boxes. We must consider that his main reason for coming out of retirement was following his aborted comeback last year when he was initially drafted in to debutise for the injured Felipe Massa at Ferrari. That comeback never materialised due to a neck injury sustained in a motorbike crash earlier in the year, and I think Michael was left unfilfilled and had been bitten by the racing bug once again. Teaming up with his friend and architect of his world championships at Ferrari, Ross Brawn, was a good move to him for make. Maybe we have to re-evaluate our expectations of the great man, maybe Schumacher is happy just taking part, and maybe it is expecting too much of him to deliver a world championship, or even a race win, straight away, in an uncompetitive car, after a three-year retirement. I for one think that Schumacher will be frustrated about his disappointing comeback thus far, but has the experience and the mentality to overcome it and return back to the front of the field.
Only a fool would write him off, and at odds of 66/1 for him to win this year's Drivers World Championship, I think a pound or two could prove to be a very shrewd move.
No comments:
Post a Comment