Originally Posted by Mythica:
“Driving into someone to win a championship is not having a brain, it's being a cheat. It's also very dangerous.”
I would say it is having a brain. Whether its cheating or not is debatable. Motorsport is dangerous. What Shumacher did, was have a low speed accident with Hill and Villenueve . They were not going 200mph down a straight, they were going round a corner at relatively slow speeds. I would agree with accidents, you never know what might happen. A freak thing may have happened, that causes someone serious injury.
Originally Posted by Mystical123:
“Well I don't see why we should distinguish his first and second careers - surely it's even worse for him that he's still doing such things in his second career? How do you justify that?”
The reason is obvious. In his first career he commanded a lot of respect. How many times did we see back markers literally jump out of the way when being lapped? Yet for other drivers they were not so accommodating? There was the thing about how Schumacher always chose a different colour helmet from his team mate....as other drivers would know it was him and not the team mate. Also the perception was that if Ferrari complained about you, you got a penalty. You also knew that Schumacher wasnt going to lift, or give an inch. So some drivers drove around that. Schumacher knew this. The schumi chop, you knew it was coming - so drivers watched out for it. Also when you are leading the title, other drivers are not supposed to mess with your race. Hence when Schumacher and Hakkinen were having their duels other drivers just didnt get involved. Drivers like Villenueve and Hakkinen didnt care if it was Schumacher or not, they would not yield. So funnily enough you didnt see Schumacher pull to many stunts against these drivers. This is something the likes of Maldonado and Hamilton havent learnt, they just dont care, they are going to move across, not lift etc etc.
In his second career, he doesnt command that same amount of respect. He isnt challenging for a win or the championship. So drivers are less likely to easy of, move over etc. Instead, they are putting his moves on him. Maybe when he came back, he thought things would just pick up from where he left of...but they obviously didnt.
Originally Posted by Mystical123:
“And of course I realise he meant to do them - how exactly does that make him a better driver? The fact that he calculated how to cause the incident makes him a much more stupid one in my view, stupid that he would ever think that it was ok to do such a thing. Again, how do you think that doesn't make him worse than Hamilton?
And I'm not wrong, but then again neither are you. I'm assuming you've heard of the word opinion?”
The big difference is that Schumacher meant to have the accident. The likes of Maldonado and Hamilton, move across, not lift off hoping the other driver will be accommodating and not cause the accident. Some drivers would back out, some wouldnt. They havent learnt which driver falls into which category.
Just take the Maldonado/Hamilton incident a couple of races ago, when Maldonado and Hamilton had a coming together. Hamiltons tyres were shot to pieces, it was clear Maldonado was going to get Hamilton before the end. The smart thing would have been to let him have the place. Equally Maldonado knew he was going to get Hamilton before the end he should have been a bit more patient. Schumacher, and I dare say quite a few other drivers would have, in Hamiltons situation let Maldonado pass, and in Maldonados position been more patient. Its in these types of situations, drivers like Schumacher are a lot smarter than Maldonado/Hamilton.