Kovalainen's deal confirmed \/

http://f1.racing-live.com/f1/e ... detail/060906112036.shtml

Awesome :up:

a good signing... think he is the ideal person to follow Alonso..

btw ive just come across this.. quite interesting LINK puts some pressure on Button for next years British GP.

That site blocks anything I write.. It says (Bad words)... Who made that crap web site?? Even if I type "Hello dear Michael" or what ever.... ROFLMAO......... Also, having word block in the form is lame... Its better to have a language filter to filter out the bad words... illepall

Oh, and also, Michael has allready said that he is staying

Quote from blackfang :

Oh, and also, Michael has allready said that he is staying

When and where he said that?

And wohooo for Kovalainen!

I just checked that at ITV F1 website Blackfang and it says the announcement is to come after the chequered flag at Monza, where are you getting your news from?

btw the article that is on the ITV site is wrong,

Quote :

Schumacher’s grand prix career has spanned more than 15 years. And in all that time, only once, on his debut, did he not drive a car capable of winning a grand prix in given circumstances.

In Michael's first race he was a stand in for Bertrand Gachot who was serving time at her majesties pleasure for spraying CS gas in a cabbie's face. It's never wise to take on a black cab driver in court and 80 gazzilion witnesses condemned Gachot to a 3 month sentence. Schumacher stood in for him and "overqualified" the car into 7th and promptly blew the clutch at the start and retired. Everyone said, "wow, a Jordan in 7th on the grid he must be great".

Actually the Jordan particularly suited the circuit and Gachot had said prior to being locked up that he thought Jordan had a very real chance of winning the race, in fact team mate De Cesaris ran 2nd for some time (if memory serves he retired).

So to say Schumacher did not have a competetive car in his first race is just plain wrong.

But I cant say my piece on the ITV site because they closed their forums a year or so ago, so i'm saying it here instead.

Quote from Becky Rose :

I just checked that at ITV F1 website Blackfang and it says the announcement is to come after the chequered flag at Monza, where are you getting your news from?

I read this in a Norwegian newspaper... thats all I know...
But as always, reporters make shit up just to try bring a story...
Its like a German newspaper do with our princess, am not blaming the German people or anything, dont get me wrong, but I personally don't care.. I don't even like our princess....

If Michael quits, its not the end of the world. He is a good driver but he has a bad temper.. + he is getting old and his days will soon be over in F1... I used to be a huge MS fan but after a few "stunts" of his, I cant stand him....

i do hope Schumacher leaves, his time as champ (or ex champ) is over tbh, he had a streak of what 7...8 years as champ, I actually stopped watching F1 because schumacher kept winning races, I only started watching F1 again when I heard there was another person winning (lol), it's not exciting seeing a person winning nearly all the races in a season, (a bit OT) I dont watch WRC alot because of Loeb winning nearly all the rallies... just better with a bit of a mixture of people winning races instead of the top say 3 or 4 .... but thats just my opinion, you can blast me if you want

I've loved every minute of his career that I have witnessed. In spite of the tall poppy syndrome and despite Michaels's few hiccups, I think he's a great racer, one of the best of all time. He has impressed me so many times that nothing can tear him down now. I supported Senna and Prost for the same reasons I support Michael, and I can look past Michael's shortcomings just as I did for Ayrton and Alain, for they were no different: always hungry, often fearless, tenacious all the way to the chequered flag, cunningly controversial, and three notches above the bulk of their rivals in sheer skill and raw ability. I would have loved to have seen more seasons from Prost and Senna and I wouldn't miss another season from Shumacher. Thanks for so so many wonderful races Michael, I don't care if they love you or hate you, you are one fast German.

If Kimi, Robert, Fernando, Nico, Jenson, Mark, Heikki et al all play fair and be nice to each other, not only will F1 be boring (controversy is always a good thing), but none of them will become greats. There is no great F1 driver in the last, what, 50 years, that has been entirely 'above board'.

And who says his time as champion is over? He's still got the pace and the desire to win races and championships, so I hope he stays until age really does become a hinderence.

@Becky, yup you're right about Spa '91. In fact I think de Crashalot actually led part of the race before his retirement. But Gachot would have been lucky to get in the top 10, so Schumi did well. And to say HE destroyed the clutch isn't entirely fair. It would almost certainly be a brand new clutch, and I don't think it's possible for a driver to destroy one in that space of time - more than likely a component failure.

i would just love a race with fangio, ascari, senna, schumacher and loads of other greats in the 1 race. Im betting Schum would be about last, and nothing against him, but there has been better.

Yeah he was a great driver, but sometimes he was just a plain cheat. Right enough, A few other greats werent exactly honest (Senna smacking into prost(?) to win the championship), but tbh his time is up. he's had a good career, made enough money to live the rest of his life sitting on his arse, time for the young guys to start coming up.

Quote from tristancliffe :

It would almost certainly be a brand new clutch, and I don't think it's possible for a driver to destroy one in that space of time - more than likely a component failure.

I'd have thought F1 cars clutches would have been made of/coated in a high bite material so surely if he was a bit hard on the clutch it wouldn't have taken long to wear it out...

Our watercooled mini moto that we have left over burnt two clutches out in the about 30seconds on a flat bit of road. Had to send them away and get them coated in .... bah I can't remember the name of the stuff now.

Ferrari don't want to let Kimi to drive for any rivals. Micheal won't drive next to Kimi. Case closed. A good day for F1.

Who is gonna make Shrimp jumps

Word is he will tell us on Sunday, so i'm on the edge of my seat.

The "BILD" newspaper here in Germany wrote today (yesterday), that they have some secret (and as always doubtful) informations, that he will announce his retirement on Sunday.

But there are more lies than truth in this newspaper, so I wouldnt pay too much attention to this. illepall

Although it would be very nice, if its true.

i'll be glued to the tv, i just got some fancy cable since i had lost speed channel for about a month, i had to miss some good races.

Quote from tristancliffe :

If Kimi, Robert, Fernando, Nico, Jenson, Mark, Heikki et al all play fair and be nice to each other, not only will F1 be boring (controversy is always a good thing), but none of them will become greats. There is no great F1 driver in the last, what, 50 years, that has been entirely 'above board'.

Being optimistic, Kimi will probably (hopefully!) leave McLaren. And we all know how Coulthard changed when he left Macca for Red Bull... from a PR robot to the biggest, loudest mouth on the grid! Maybe Kimi will develop a bigger mouth too. Same about Mark Webber, who will partner DC at Red Bull next year and is quite outspoken already.

Did I mention Webber and Coulthard don't like each other? That's gonna be a cool rivalry.

Besides, the epicenter of controversy has almost always been Schumacher, because he's been at the front for a long time. Now whoever gets in front will be flamed... and more controversy will come.

Who's going to babysit Ralf in the paddock then?

Michael, stay!!!

Quote from thisnameistaken :

but deliberately driving into other cars, this season's Monaco parking incident, and the whole arrangement he's had with #2 drivers just don't sit well with me. I don't really care how much of that is Ferrari and how much of it is Schumacher, it taints his achievements.

totally agree, he was Way off pace in hungary towards the end, and cars were lapping 3 seconds faster and tried to overtake him at the chicane and he virtually nearly took them out the race, foolish mistakes really, not the moves of a champion, he should have known he was off pace and still put up a fight, but never try to ram them out the race

Quote from thisnameistaken :

As for Michael... I don't like him. It's not down to the press or him being German or any of that, it's because I've watched him since day one of his F1 career and I've just always thought he was a twat. I can deal with his "chop", and most everything else he did on-track, but deliberately driving into other cars, this season's Monaco parking incident, and the whole arrangement he's had with #2 drivers just don't sit well with me. I don't really care how much of that is Ferrari and how much of it is Schumacher, it taints his achievements.

All that said, I would like to see him do one more season at Ferrari with Kimi in the sister car, but I'm pretty sure he knows how that season would end, and so I think he'll retire at the end of this season.

That's not to say he couldn't have beaten the likes of Kimi in his earlier years, but he's never been in a situation where he has serious competition from a teammate before, and I don't think he could handle it.

Thats's pretty much how I see it but was too lazy to write down earlier.

Except that his wheel to wheel antics were one of my major gripes. The probability of contact or being chopped into the grass on the staight when trying to overtake him was just immense, seen as recently as Hungary where he had contact with other cars at least 4 times. And his standard response of "I didn't even see him" after collisions was also incedibly annoying.

But he does have traits which I respect him for namely his total dedication and undying hunger for wins. I remember a situation a few years ago when it started to rain heavily in free practice and the whole field decided to sit it out in the pits. Better not to take any unnecessary risks. The whole field except Schumacher that is. He spent the whole session doing lap after lap, pushing hard, having offs, getting new tyres, going out again and regularly slashing seconds off his lap time.

At the time this really made me think about the attitudes of the other drivers. How on earth could they all hide away in the pits while the guy who was always beating them, especially in the rain, was out there driving his balls off and gaining wet track expirience that they could never hope to match should it rain later in the weekend?

But he didn't just have the will to win, he had the will to win at all costs and this led to all of the flaws mentioned in this thread.

It's almost a shame. A driver of his ability and dedication should have led F1 to a classic era. But he let us down by never accepting competition in in his own team.

I'm glad the new breed of F1 drivers don't resemble Schumacher the slightest in this regard. Montoya left Williams to join Raikkonen at McLaren, Alonso signed for Mclaren without even knowing who his team mate would be. Raikkonen signed for Ferrari not caring whether Schumacher would be there or not (at least I think he did). And then there are loads of young guys on their way (Paffett, Hamilton, Rosberg, Piquet, Kubica, Vettel...) so I have no worries that F1 will deal just fine without Schumacher.

Unbelievable how many people have no idea at all.

Quote from Gunn :

Unbelievable how many people have no idea at all.

Be as big a Schumacher fan as you want to be, no problem. But no need to call people who don't like him clueless.

Raikkonen has signed for Ferrari? Was this announced officialy?

Quote from Leifde :

Raikkonen has signed for Ferrari? Was this announced officialy?

dont know dont care obvious he will though