Schumacher is gone..

[VectraMan]

I would have liked to see Raikonnen and Shumi in the same car though.

Bit of a tight squeeze.

People always talk about Senna, but in reality Senna more than anybody would do whatever it would take to win; most notably driving into Prost in Japan.

Of course the car is as big a factor as the driver, but then the best drivers tend to end up with the best teams. Schumacher decided not to go for the best team, but choose Ferrari. Eddie Irvine described the 96 Ferrari as "that's not a car, it's a dog. God knows how Michael managed to win a race in it".

The big performance differences of the last few years have not been down to the cars, but down to the tyres. It's no secret that Bridgestone got it a bit wrong last year with the tyres having to last the whole race (stupid rule that). That's what's changed this year.

[wendigo100]

Of course the car is as big a factor as the driver, but then the best drivers tend to end up with the best teams.

You are right. There have been few world champions who were not in the best car. However, Schumacher did it twice - at Benneton, and his first championship at Ferrari.

Senna didn't really have the chance to win the title with a lesser team because the two I remember him with early in his career were, at those times, not good enough or too unreliable. He still won races though.

Senna was a great driver, but as you say he was as ruthless as Schumacher. Other drivers said he drove as if he thought he was immortal - he could be dangerous. I remember Mansell attacking him in the pit lane after one of his dodgy manouvers.

It would be interesting to see everyone in the same car, but that would remove part of the reason for F1 - you watch the A1 series for that.

[VectraMan]

Senna was a great driver, but as you say he was as ruthless as Schumacher. Other drivers said he drove as if he thought he was immortal - he could be dangerous. I remember Mansell attacking him in the pit lane after one of his dodgy manouvers.

Senna did think he was immortal. He believed God wanted him to be the world's best racing driver and so would protect him in the car.

It would be interesting to see everyone in the same car, but that would remove part of the reason for F1 - you watch the A1 series for that.

Or GP2. The interesting thing is that with both A1GP and GP2, despite them all being in the same car, there's still performance differences between different teams due to the different teams' and drivers' abilities to set the cars up. And the differences in performance aren't all that different to F1 where they have different cars. If F1 was a single make championship, I don't think the results would be all that different; it would still be the same teams and drivers at the top. Tyres have made the biggest difference in the recent past, and next year everybody will be using the same tyres.

[Board Game Geek]

I was getting quite excited by the sound of this thread's title.

I expected it to be news of a horrific crash, featuring close-ups of brain matter splattered all over a crash barrier, and various body-parts strewn haphazardly across the track, with a final lingering look at his "lucky teddy", smothered with blood and engine oil, laying next to the track.

<sigh>

Swine ! The lot of you !

[premiere]

Wouldn't say he was the best driver 'ever', but he was the best for several years...much like Steve Davis was the rolls royce of snooker in the 80's and Nick Faldo was in the 90's at golf, but better people come along...Tiger Woods, Alonso, Ronnie O'Sullivan etc and their time will pass too as better people shove them out of the way.

Senna was a great driver, Prost a great driver...Mansell an idiot with a big moustache!

Schumacher is a good solid consistant driver (well he was for a long while) although don't think his reputation with others drivers is that good. Still would be nice to see him retire world champ tho....or not?

[premiere]

BGG, didn't Senna cop it with a lump of car axle or something shoved through his head?

[mcquiggd]

John Reid will sort this out. After a period of consultation.

[zathras]

They all push the envelope. In today's race Alonso was penalised ten places for doing a similar thing and blocking Massa. I remember the good old days when Prost and Senna deliberately ran each other off the road in successive years on the first bend in Japan, to stop the other bloke winning.

Schumacher is one of the greatest F1 driver ever. He gave a barely-known team two world championships, then sorted out Ferrari who'd been an absolute rabble for 20 years.

Schumacher did more than that. Complaining he did not know his car was damaged dispite hitting a concrete wall 3 times! That eventually knocked out Damon Hill and he went on to win his first championship.

Schumacher may have been a brilliant driver, but he was a bad sportsman. Until very recently the FIA have been soft on Schumacher. If there was a question about it whatever decision gave Schumacher an advantage that is what the FIA went with.

[Asterix]

Can't help being a cheat

Weasel-looking and shedding crocodile tears about his retirement. Good riddance, I say. Best F1 driver ever ? Not in a million years. All the stats can't hide the fact that he was always looking for an easy angle (preferably the one the cameras couldn't spot). If you are the best, why do it ? BTW, Ferrari would have dominated F1 with or without him, on the strength of their cars. Nowadays, it's like Scaletrix, they might as well leave the drivers out and use remote control (They should do that on LU too, BTW)

[AtW]

I remember how Schum was behind his team mate, but Ferrari bosses ordered his team mate to let Schum ahead because this way he'd get the points he needed.

The whole F1 concept is a load of tosh.