check this out
Fernando Alonso says Michael Schumacher is the most unsporting driver ever
read it first.
Well, it just sounds like sour grapes to me. (I like Ferrari, who doesn't? No preference towards Schumi tho, but this is just sour grapes)
Here's what happened this season. Earlier in Monaco, during Qualifying, Schumacher while doing the final turn apparently had some mechanical problem and his car went extremely slowly, and conveniently parked at the road side while the Q3 session was ending. yellow flags came out (meaning go slow, no overtaking for that sector).... thus his 'move' hampered a few cars flying laps. He was subsequently penalised by having to start dead last in the actual race. Here's the video.
Ok, I feel that even though Alonso didn't seem to be impeded, it was still very unsportsman like for Schumi to park there at the end of Q. It seems deliberate, hence he was punished. He eventually finished 5th from dead last (22nd) in the race.
Now, in the Italian Monza race 3 days ago, Alonso was found to be impeding Massa (Ferrari driver). the rules state that a driver on a OUT lap has to cede position to a driver on a HOT lap. Massa was on a HOT, and clocking good sector timings, while Alonso was late out of his pit garage to beat the clock (later driver = better grip on track = faster car. but he was a bit too late hence he needed to rush b4 the chequered flag)... so instead of giving way to Massa, he decided to pia to the start line, ignoring Massa. As it turns out, telementry proved that his distance in front of Massa was disrupting Massa's airflow (and hence cornering speed), resulting in Massa not clocking his best time. See for yourself.
Truth be told, it's rather hard to be convinced by the stewards decision, as Alonso seemed pretty far ahead... but the telementry info says otherwise. Eventually he got penalised, his 3 best times got wiped off and he started from 10th. In the race, he blew his engine, so its a DNF...did not finish.
For the sake of a balanced argument, here's Max Mosley's (president of FIA) view...
Well, obviously Max has to side with his stewards what! He has to defend his decision, although the common viewer like me have no access to their special telementry data. whatever la, the die is cast and Alonso was relegated. I must also add that there was a permanent steward which determines such decisions across all races, so you can't possibly accuse the Italians of favouring their red marquee.
In any case, Alonso got penalised for unsporting behaviour. And so did Schumi, earlier in the season. And now Alonso accusess Schumi of unsportsmanlike? Sounds like a big joke to me. Even though Alonso did also accuse the current season as being rigged, at least he had some basis to that from his point of view (his lead is now just TWO points) ... but sportsmanship? I'm not sure if he had the high ground to say that.
Also, I'm not too sure about him putting down a fellow competitor like that. I mean, the people who criticise Schumi are really the great drivers from the past who have long retired, and the journalists. It's rather unprofessional to put down your fellow pro like that, especially when he (Alonso) hasn't retired. Having said that, I'm gonna contradict myself and say, hey, who minds a little bickering. Stirs up the competition doesn't it? Alonso probably just needs to learn a bit of PR skills... and no one better to learn from than Schumi himself. Just wait for his response on this. That fella, for all his controversies, is still the best at handling the media. He never incites other drivers via the media. He just let his racing do the talking.
As I said before, Schumi's past is really blemished by some rather dubious racing. Here's what I found on YouTube
1994 (Adelaide) - Schumi (for Benetton then) and Damon Hill racing in Australia. Basically, whoever finished ahead of the other in this race gets to win the year's championship. Schumi was ahead of points at this stage, and this clip shows how he managed to get in the way of Damon, resulting in Schumi crashing out but not before damaging Damon's front suspension. Damon retired in the end, Schumi took his 1st championship. (Aside: Flavio Briartore was his manager then, who is now Alonso's manager. dig that) Anyways, the move was rather dodgy and it is generally accepted that he was intentional.
Heres another
1997 (Jerez) - Schumi and Villeneuve. Same situation as 1994, but this time only Schumi retired after the incident. All of Schumi's points were stripped from him for this season, handing title to Villeneuve.
The thing is, since 1997, he has avoided such stupid racing moves. Even though one of the Austrian GPs (I think 2001) where his teammate Barichello moved over on the last lap to let Schumi win, this was more due to a Ferrari team order than dirty driving from Schumi. They say he has come clean, and he has really done a lot of goodwill in this 9 years, a lot of charity work and no personal scandals, perhaps as a form of redemption for his younger, reckless days. Well, at least up to this year's Monaco, heh. Old habits die hard I suppose.
On another aside, I really miss Martin Brundle's commentary. He's my favourite commentator, and he was the one who I listened to 1st when I got hooked on F1 racing. I don't know how to explain this, but I'm sure most pple have their favourite commentators for their fav sports heh. Unfortunately in recent years Star Sports have switched to Chris Goodwin and Steve Slater. Nothing against Chris man, but Steve Slater, woah he is ridiculously biased to Ferrari. And some of the things he says really make me cringe. And he is horrible at speculation. eg when it is fairly obvious that a driver is on a 2-stop strat, he would say stuff like ' Now, do you think that in the 7 seconds of fuel that he put in, he could last till the end of the race? Maybe if he tunes down his revs, he could well possible do it!' And I bet Chris must be thinking 'oh WTF is this guy saying man.' but all he says is 'Well, I'm not so sure about that, Steve...' haha. I think my main gripe is that the current pair only comment from the studio at Star Sports, while Brundle and his partner are always on location at the racetrack. And we get to hear stuff that we can't see on screen that they can see on location. And the ontrack interviews are always a bonus, aren't they?
ok. Guess I said enough.
Here's a very, very good article I chanced upon... 'Where next for Michael Schumacher?'
Anyways, here's the 2007 Calendar (subject to changes surely)
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Let's see how it goes ...
Tags F1 schumacher alonso
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