Schumacher goes down fighting
Luck, that old fickle beast, can be responsible for a great deal. It is never described as "Mr Luck" or "Sir Luck" or even "Lord Luck". Luck, when granted human qualities, is invariably described as "Lady Luck". There is a sound reason for this. Luck is famously ascribed the feminine gender because it is notoriously fickle. Just like you don't want to mess with an angry lioness if you are in no particular hurry to meet your maker, you don't want to take any chances with Lady Luck. You can spend years happily riding a chariot dragged along by Lady Luck until, one day, inexplicably, she snaps the reins while you're going uphill and laughs as you go crashing down to the bottom.
Until this weekend, if ever there was any good luck going you could safely bet that it was going the way of Michael Schumacher. On the last day of a career punctuated by extraordinary good luck, Lady Luck unceremoniously abandoned him at Interlagos. In qualifying on Saturday, having set the fastest time in the second of the three qualifying sessions, Schumacher emerged to set a time and found that, once again, the previously infallible reliability of his Ferrari engine was in serious doubt. "Disaster for Michael Schumacher - his engine sounds like a bag of bolts!" yelled Martin Brundle from the commentary box. This meant that Schumacher was forced to start Sunday's race from tenth place on the grid while his team-mate, Felipe Massa, basked in the glory of having achieved pole position before his home crowd.
As we have seen from time to time over the years, Michael Schumacher never ever gives up. Even when things look impossible to everybody he maintains supreme self-belief. Starting from tenth place he pumped in a series of devastatingly quick laps and would, surely, have won yesterday's race had disaster not struck yet again. While attempting to pull a dastardly overtaking manoeuvre on Giancarlo Fisichella, the Ferrari suddenly snapped back with a puncture to its left rear tyre. Schumacher was forced to coast to the pits, have a tyre change and resume the race from the back, almost a lap down on race leader Felipe Massa. His blistering pace upon rejoining was such that he cut through the field like a hot knife through butter. In one of the best drives of his long career, he overtook car after car, setting fastest lap after fastest lap. With only two laps to go and up to fifth place, he did not rest and say "well, at least I have salvaged something from this mess". Instead he went after Kimi Raikkonen and overtook him in the style only Schumacher has been able to perfect. This was the seven times world champion proving he was still at the top of his game. He knew he was going down but was determined to go down fighting. Stunning stuff.
The truth is that an eighth world championship was never really on the cards for Schumacher. It was unrealistic to expect that Fernando Alonso would finish the race without scoring a single point. In the event, Alonso finished second behind Massa and entered the history books. He now has a place permanently secured in the pantheon of Formula One greats. This gives him supreme confidence as he enters the next season as a McLaren driver in place of Kimi Raikkonen. The problem for him, as Raikkonen was painfully reminded of again yesterday, is that McLaren seem to have lost the ability to produce a competitive car.
A comment Raikkonen made on the grid before the race made me wonder whether Niki Lauda (himself a former double champion with the scarlet team) was correct to suggest that he will be responsible for the decline of Ferrari. There was a ceremony conducted by Pele at which Michael Schumacher was granted an award in recognition of his achievements. All the drivers were present except Raikkonen. When Martin Brundle asked him where he had been, Raikkonen - on live television, remember - said "I was taking a shit". This tells me a great deal. First, it is clear that there is no love lost between him and Schumacher - which probably explains why Schumacher chose to retire now rather than race for a season or two longer with Raikkonen as his team-mate. Secondly, it shows that he possesses none of the collegiate spirit that Schumacher imbued in Ferrari over the years ("we are a family," Schumacher often said.) Finally, it shows that Raikkonen is very much his own man. I wonder whether there are rueful heads being shaken in Maranello now. Did they choose the right fellow to succeed the great German? Time alone will tell.
Jenson Button did well to come third after a nightmare qualifying session which resulted in him having to start from fourteenth place. It is a psychologically important podium for Button and a good development for the Honda team. I would like nothing better than to watch a three way fight for the championship between Alonso, Raikkonen and Button. If Honda are finally getting their car sorted this could well be a possibility. Prayer time, methinks.
After two and a half decades of dominating the Formula One scene it is almost impossible to imagine a grid without Michael Schumacher's frightening presence. He did a marvellous job of making 2006 one of the most interesting seasons in many years. His cohorts of fans around the world will dearly miss him.
Gitau
23 October 2006
Until this weekend, if ever there was any good luck going you could safely bet that it was going the way of Michael Schumacher. On the last day of a career punctuated by extraordinary good luck, Lady Luck unceremoniously abandoned him at Interlagos. In qualifying on Saturday, having set the fastest time in the second of the three qualifying sessions, Schumacher emerged to set a time and found that, once again, the previously infallible reliability of his Ferrari engine was in serious doubt. "Disaster for Michael Schumacher - his engine sounds like a bag of bolts!" yelled Martin Brundle from the commentary box. This meant that Schumacher was forced to start Sunday's race from tenth place on the grid while his team-mate, Felipe Massa, basked in the glory of having achieved pole position before his home crowd.
As we have seen from time to time over the years, Michael Schumacher never ever gives up. Even when things look impossible to everybody he maintains supreme self-belief. Starting from tenth place he pumped in a series of devastatingly quick laps and would, surely, have won yesterday's race had disaster not struck yet again. While attempting to pull a dastardly overtaking manoeuvre on Giancarlo Fisichella, the Ferrari suddenly snapped back with a puncture to its left rear tyre. Schumacher was forced to coast to the pits, have a tyre change and resume the race from the back, almost a lap down on race leader Felipe Massa. His blistering pace upon rejoining was such that he cut through the field like a hot knife through butter. In one of the best drives of his long career, he overtook car after car, setting fastest lap after fastest lap. With only two laps to go and up to fifth place, he did not rest and say "well, at least I have salvaged something from this mess". Instead he went after Kimi Raikkonen and overtook him in the style only Schumacher has been able to perfect. This was the seven times world champion proving he was still at the top of his game. He knew he was going down but was determined to go down fighting. Stunning stuff.
The truth is that an eighth world championship was never really on the cards for Schumacher. It was unrealistic to expect that Fernando Alonso would finish the race without scoring a single point. In the event, Alonso finished second behind Massa and entered the history books. He now has a place permanently secured in the pantheon of Formula One greats. This gives him supreme confidence as he enters the next season as a McLaren driver in place of Kimi Raikkonen. The problem for him, as Raikkonen was painfully reminded of again yesterday, is that McLaren seem to have lost the ability to produce a competitive car.
A comment Raikkonen made on the grid before the race made me wonder whether Niki Lauda (himself a former double champion with the scarlet team) was correct to suggest that he will be responsible for the decline of Ferrari. There was a ceremony conducted by Pele at which Michael Schumacher was granted an award in recognition of his achievements. All the drivers were present except Raikkonen. When Martin Brundle asked him where he had been, Raikkonen - on live television, remember - said "I was taking a shit". This tells me a great deal. First, it is clear that there is no love lost between him and Schumacher - which probably explains why Schumacher chose to retire now rather than race for a season or two longer with Raikkonen as his team-mate. Secondly, it shows that he possesses none of the collegiate spirit that Schumacher imbued in Ferrari over the years ("we are a family," Schumacher often said.) Finally, it shows that Raikkonen is very much his own man. I wonder whether there are rueful heads being shaken in Maranello now. Did they choose the right fellow to succeed the great German? Time alone will tell.
Jenson Button did well to come third after a nightmare qualifying session which resulted in him having to start from fourteenth place. It is a psychologically important podium for Button and a good development for the Honda team. I would like nothing better than to watch a three way fight for the championship between Alonso, Raikkonen and Button. If Honda are finally getting their car sorted this could well be a possibility. Prayer time, methinks.
After two and a half decades of dominating the Formula One scene it is almost impossible to imagine a grid without Michael Schumacher's frightening presence. He did a marvellous job of making 2006 one of the most interesting seasons in many years. His cohorts of fans around the world will dearly miss him.
Gitau
23 October 2006
posted by Gitau at 4:58 pm
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