Schumacher to retire at the end of 2012 season

all the championships, poles, and wins are in and of themselves incredibly impressive ... but for me ( and yeah I was/am a Ferrari/Schumacher fan ) the most impressive is having his engineer radio him and tell him "you need to pull out 20 sec ( or 30 or howsomeever much they needed) on ( who ever was behind him) to be able to pit and retain the lead ... his apparent response would be a sorta shrug and answer "ok" ... and proceed to do it ... as though his running away from the field was nowhere near what he and the car had in them ..

how much was it him and how much the car ... or combination

I've not said anywhere that I don't think he's one of the greatest racing talents of the last 30 years, I've just expressed (a not uncomon view) that I think he's a tool and cheated his way into some of those stats. Take away the cheats and he'd still have at least 5 championships, I can't take that away, it doesn't change my view.

Back to the embeded but disabled code. Part of what made people suspect TC was not just his starts, but the engine note coming out of corners sounding like TC was in action. Many people belive it was. Guess which camp I'm in?

Adrian_Thompson wrote: Back to the embeded but disabled code. Part of what made people suspect TC was not just his starts, but the engine note coming out of corners sounding like TC was in action. Many people belive it was. Guess which camp I'm in?

Benneton did little to enhance its' reputation as a constructor; Schumacher didn't do his any good either. The team was fined $100K because of the bogus software (as was McClaren) when the FIA couldn't determine it was actually used; it shouldn't have been there in the first place but the FIA wasn'y very competent on the technical side of things.

Benneton also illegally modified the fuel flow control on it's refueling equipment with this resulting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdyuN_cUqjA

Considering Schumacher's level of involvement within his teams, it's easy to surmise he knew exactly what was happening. Funny, too, that we never hear much (from the SpeedTV announce crew) about this era in F1.

Schumacher has amassed an amazing record - for both good and not-so-good reasons. Deliberately taking-out rivals, the Schuey-chop (which should have been nipped in the bud by the FIA) and parking in the middle of the track to slow his competitors don't do much for his reputation.

IMHO, of course.

oldsaw wrote: IMHO, of course.

And a fine opinion it is sir

oldsaw wrote: Considering Schumacher's level of involvement within his teams, it's easy to surmise he knew exactly what was happening. Funny, too, that we never hear much (from the SpeedTV announce crew) about this era in F1.

In the early 2000s, Speed (I think they might have been Speedvision at the time) did "F1 Decade", where they showed the races from 10 year before (I think it was 93, 94, and 95) and commented on them in real time. Steve Matchett was a mechanic on the Benetton team at that time and talked about his perspective on all of the controversy. He was the rear jackman, got sprayed in burning fuel, and had to be doused with a fire extinguisher in the pit lane...

The $100K fine was for handing over the code the code late, not for having illegal code in there. Benetton said the fuel filter that was removed was done so at the direction of some individuals from Intertechnique (the manufacturer), and other teams confirmed they had gotten the same direction as well. The filter that was removed was also determined not to be related to the fire.

In reply to codrus:

"Not hearing much" is not the same as hearing nothing. And, yeah, I know Matchett's role in the Benetton team; he was the narrator in the video I linked. I also recognize a reluctance to explore a (possible) embarrassing episode in Matchett's (and F1's) history. No one has ever admitted cheating took place and it's unlikely they ever will. Hence the deserved speculation.

You're absolutely correct about the "real" reasoning behind the $100k fines. The "real" question is why the codes were there in the first place. The FIA didn't have the techincal expertise to analyze the rules it put in place and chose the best available option. All my opinion, of course..............

Yes, some teams benefitted from Intertechnique's confirmation of the benefits of the filter removal. Was that an "official" recommendation? Did ALL the teams have access to and use that information? And why did those teams NOT go to the FIA to see if modifications to the refueling systems would be legal before using it?

I'll suggest (again) that it was because the teams were/are always looking for a way to stretch a rules interpretation and that the FIA (especially then) wasn't competent enough to catch the infractions.

The FIA is better now; not great, but certainly a lot more competent.................

To paraphrase an old saying," You ain't racin', if you ain't cheatin'" :)