French Grand Prix Analysis

Formula 1 ^ | Jul 23 2002

[2Trievers]

Michael Schumacher become the most successful driver in the history of the sport. The German's eighth win of the season saw him wrap up a fifth drivers' title in record to time to match Juan Manuel Fangio's championship total. It was also Schumacher's sixth victory in France, matching the previous benchmark set by Alain Prost.

Ferrari
Schumacher may have won the race, but it was far from an easy weekend for him or Ferrari. The team faced an intense, two-pronged attack, from Williams in qualifying and then from McLaren in the race. Pole position came down to a straight fight between Schumacher and Montoya, and for the fifth time in five Grands Prix it was the world champion who lost out.

Barrichello qualified third behind his team mate, but his race ended before it had began, his car stranded by an electrical problem as the grid began their formation lap. Mechanics pushed the distraught Brazilian back to the pits but were unable to solve the glitch.

Schumacher, meanwhile, was unable to find a way past Montoya in the opening stages, during which there was little to split the pace of the Williams, Ferraris and McLarens. Only after the first round of pit stops did the German move ahead, but his drive through penalty saw him chasing Raikkonen once the second stops were completed.

A close challenge for second from Coulthard evaporated when the Scot too was given a drive-through, and then Raikkonen's mistake handed a grateful Schumacher an opportunistic 61st Grand Prix win. Overall, Ferrari's rivals look to have closed the performance gap, though how much of that was down to the generally superior performance of their Michelin tyres remains to be seen.

[2Trievers]

Schumie ... greatest of ALL time? &;-)

Photo Highlight
Formula One driver Michael Schumacher's Ferrari race car is reflected in the helmet of a fireman during a free practice session ahead of the French Grand Prix, at the Magny Cours circuit, July 19, 2002. (Reuters/Jean Paul Pelissier)

[2Trievers]

Schumacher v Fangio: who is the greatest?

Michael Schumacher may have equalled Juan Manuel Fangio's five drivers' titles, but how do the two Formula One™ racing greats really stack up?

Formula1.com takes a look at the statistics. They may not tell the full story, but they do make for interesting reading.

Schumacher, 33, is now in his 12th season of F1, having won 61 Grands Prix from 173 races starts. In contrast, Fangio's Formula One career did not begin until he was almost 40.

In the space of eight seasons he won 24 times in 51 attempts, a record victory rate of 47.1 per cent. This compares to 35.3 for Schumacher, who lies third behind Alberto Ascari in the all-time wins-to-starts ratio list.

In terms of percentages, Fangio also wins the qualifying contest. He started well over half of his races from pole position, with a figure of 56.9 per cent, higher than any other driver in history. Schumacher currently ranks fifth in list of qualifying masters on 26.6 per cent. Past and present rivals Ayrton Senna and Juan Pablo Montoya are among those above him in the table.

Schumacher has scored more world championship points than any other driver in history with a total of 897. In comparison, Fangio ranks an apparently lowly 16th in the list.

However, the number of races per season and the way points are allotted has obviously changed many times between the pair's respective eras. On a points-per-race basis Fangio is fractionally ahead, with a figure of 5.4 to Schumacher's 5.2.

When Schumacher debuted for Jordan in 1991 he made an immediate impression, though not as immediate as Fangio's back in 1950. The Argentine won a Grand Prix at only his second attempt, whereas Schumacher had to wait until his 18th race to taste victory. Fangio also took pole on his second GP outing, forty races sooner than his German rival.

Schumacher has driven with three teams during his career and won driver titles with two of them - Benetton in 1994 and 1995, and Ferrari in 2000, 2001 and 2002.

In Fangio's much shorter time in the sport he competed with four teams. He took his first title in 1951 with Alfa Romeo. In 1954, his second championship year, he started the season with Maserati before quickly moving to Mercedes. His third fourth and fifth crowns came with Mercedes, Ferrari and Maserati respectively.

[heylady]

Former F1 world champion and now Team Manager of Jaguar was so pissed at his drivers not scoring in the points said, watch and I'll show you how its done. The story goes he hopped in one of the F1 cars got to the first turn and couldn't make it.. He had to call one of the drivers on the radio to walk down the track to drive the car back (Jackie Stewart bashed heads with Bobby Rahal at Jaguar and Rahal left, Rahal was team manager). Apples and oranges. were talking about 50 years of advancement and technique in how these cars are operated.

[2Trievers]

So you are saying we shouldn't compare Ruth to McGuire, Armstrong to Thys, or Montgolfier to Fossett? &;-)

[Prodigal Son]

Are you talking about Nikki Lauda?

[Prodigal Son]

And too, I think Rahal mainly bashed heads with Lauda. The word around the F1 world was that Lauda had engineered Rahal's going away party. I think Stewart was no longer invovled with the team at that point.

[MJM59]

You can always compare them, but unless they are competing at the same point in time, it would be an unfair comparison.

[2Trievers]

Then we can agree, Schumie is the BEST of all time? LOL &;-)

[Prodigal Son]

Well, Schumi isn't finished yet. If he sticks around a couple more seasons, the numbers will be so overwhelmingly in his favor any comparison would be moot anyway.

I think Schumi will either buy a team or start one after his retirement. He's got the dough, that's for sure. He's pulling down what $100 Million a year or more? I figure it would be a venture that would later become a joint project with his brother Ralf.

[2Trievers]

Yes, you can't get that out of your blood. &;-)

[Lockbox]

Now that Michael has won his fifth, will he let Rubens have a car that runs?

[Utopia]

I was so p*ssed at Ferrari during the Austrian Grand Prix when team orders had Rubens (clearly in front) pull over and be overtaken by Michael just yards from the finish line. Michael did not deserve that win. That angered me so much, I gave up watching F1, figuring its all fixed anyway. Noticed also, that sporting gambling sites like William Hill have dropped any kind of F1 betting. Say you had money for Rubens to win the Austrian GP-- you lose because of race fixing and there's not a damn thing you can do about it.

[wita]

I subscribe to the Grand Prix racing, used to be an advertising and developement platform for normal cars notion. With that in mind, we could easily go back fifty years and do away with down force, wider than the mississippi, wheels and tires, hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical, transmissions, graphite brakes, stickers by the dozen, and a thousand other eff one developments that I am not particularly fond of.

The price of development has always seemed to favor the big money teams, which is why there are only three at the moment that have a statistical chance of winning a race. I'm not sure I like the points system, but I don't have a better one that I have dreamed up. I graduated from high school in England in 1958, and grew up on the drivers and cars of that era, so I might be just a little prejudiced toward the old way, but I still enjoy watching even today.

[2Trievers]

"I graduated from high school in England in 1958",

Do you know of Eddie Irvine? &;-)

[wita]

If it is a joke, I'm sorry you will have to explain it to me.
If not, you have to know I'm closer in age to Stirling Moss than to Eddie, and isn't Eddie retiring at the end of this year?

[2Trievers]

You have FReepmail. &;-)

[DrDavid]

I agree with you, but nothing quite so drastic needs to be done. Just get rid of the wings and you will get passing back. I would also suggest that races be extended by 50% and allowed to run up to 3 hours. This will put more emphasis on engineering and less on "sprinting".

[DrDavid]

It doesn't matter anymore, since the season is already over!

I'm not sure what the point to the remaining races will be other than to allow Ferrari to accumulate a record number of points. If they can give Rubens a car that works!

[MJM59]

Being a Schumi fan myself, I would have to agree. His performance speaks for itself. Schumi vs. Senna would have been a great rivalry. Senna's sucessors, Hill, Villenueve had great cars, and they were good enough to win the championships in those Williams. But they never proved to me that they could consistantly win in anything but the best car. Schuey has win in everything he has driven.

[wita]

Good points, and how can your wing fall off, if you don't have one. The lack of passing except on long straights just before a slow corner although not the only time, has seemed to make curvy courses not as fun to watch as the others, and it ought to be the other way around. To be caught and passed on the fast sweeper should be the ultimate gotcha, but not in todays world.