After being bored by Valencia on Sunday I decided to have a look back through some of my old highlights DVDs to remind me why I love the sport and I got thinking about Michael Schumacher. Schumi has more titles than any other driver in F1 as we all know but he also has a 4 year gap between title 2 and 3 where you could argued he was still by a long way the best driver in F1 could probably have negociated his way into any team in F1 at the time but he didn't he chose Ferrari.
Lets wave the amount of money being paid to him here and look at the reason he chose Ferrari - Schumacher wanted the glory of bringing this once great team back to the front of the sport. He wanted to be forever known as the man who made Ferrari great again - and lets face it he acheived it. I also think the only thing that tempted him out of retirement and the reason he's still here is the prospect of also being known as the driver that brought winning ways back to the famous silver arrows of Mercedes.
Which made me think that beneth Schumi's win at all costs attitude is actual a romantic soul who cares more about the glory than the records. Now I'm sure there are those of you who will debate this and I'm sure I would on another day but it got me thinking about drivers, champions both past present and future and which ones are the ones with the glory in their eyes and which ones are all about the records? I'm not saying either is better but there is def a different attitude that can be seen in drivers and sometimes it changes as their career goes on.
Senna to me was the ultimate in record hunters as he famously would negoicate ruthlessly to make sure he was in the best car in the field famously offering his services for free to Williams in 1993 and showing a reluctance to even compete in F1 when he didn't get his seat there - although even he might have softerned as time went on as he often spoke about ending his career driving a Ferrari even if it was 'as slow as a snail'
Jean Alesi can be viewed as a driver who let pride and glory get in the way of what could have been an amazing career. Jean Spaghetti chose Ferrari over many other offers of drives(including Williams) because of his proud Italian heritage. Even after turning Williams down initially that first time you got the impression that he was still highly rated and if he'd announced his decision to leave Ferrari would have ended up being snapped up by one of the front running teams - but he never did because he loved Ferrari so much and by the time they fell out of love with him his career had peeked and his chance gone. Ended his career with just 1 Grand Prix win.
Prost is a great example of someone who started out as a romantic wanting to win the title as a Frenchman in a French team, Renault and just lost faith that he'd ever acheive it after 3 season and moved to Mclaren to concentrate on himself. I guess his career came full circle when he returned for one last season to win a title in the Renault powered Williams.
What about the current field?
Well Lewis declaring that he wants to stay at Mclaren for his whole career certainly shows him up as more of a glory seeker than a record seeker - as does the bet with Ron Dennis about being Mclaren's first tripple champion - however we seen signs of Mr Hamilton feeling impatient with this
Sebastian Vettel is reknowned for his interest in stats and figures so maybe you'd class him as a record hunter but I can't help but feel that because of this love of stats that after he has 2 or 3 titles under his belt he might fancy the prospect of 'doing a schumacher' and bringing a once great team back to the front. Maybe a future move to Mercedes is on the cards?
What do you guys think? How many drivers can you think of who have acheived less in their career than they should out of loyalty or idiolism? Which former champions and present day drivers do you see as having their eyes on the prize and nuts to the rest of the world if it tries to get in their way?
Debate is nice but please lets not turn this into my driver is better than your driver. I'm not suggesting either way is better than the other I'm just interested in which drivers are percieved as what.
Lets wave the amount of money being paid to him here and look at the reason he chose Ferrari - Schumacher wanted the glory of bringing this once great team back to the front of the sport. He wanted to be forever known as the man who made Ferrari great again - and lets face it he acheived it. I also think the only thing that tempted him out of retirement and the reason he's still here is the prospect of also being known as the driver that brought winning ways back to the famous silver arrows of Mercedes.
Which made me think that beneth Schumi's win at all costs attitude is actual a romantic soul who cares more about the glory than the records. Now I'm sure there are those of you who will debate this and I'm sure I would on another day but it got me thinking about drivers, champions both past present and future and which ones are the ones with the glory in their eyes and which ones are all about the records? I'm not saying either is better but there is def a different attitude that can be seen in drivers and sometimes it changes as their career goes on.
Senna to me was the ultimate in record hunters as he famously would negoicate ruthlessly to make sure he was in the best car in the field famously offering his services for free to Williams in 1993 and showing a reluctance to even compete in F1 when he didn't get his seat there - although even he might have softerned as time went on as he often spoke about ending his career driving a Ferrari even if it was 'as slow as a snail'
Jean Alesi can be viewed as a driver who let pride and glory get in the way of what could have been an amazing career. Jean Spaghetti chose Ferrari over many other offers of drives(including Williams) because of his proud Italian heritage. Even after turning Williams down initially that first time you got the impression that he was still highly rated and if he'd announced his decision to leave Ferrari would have ended up being snapped up by one of the front running teams - but he never did because he loved Ferrari so much and by the time they fell out of love with him his career had peeked and his chance gone. Ended his career with just 1 Grand Prix win.
Prost is a great example of someone who started out as a romantic wanting to win the title as a Frenchman in a French team, Renault and just lost faith that he'd ever acheive it after 3 season and moved to Mclaren to concentrate on himself. I guess his career came full circle when he returned for one last season to win a title in the Renault powered Williams.
What about the current field?
Well Lewis declaring that he wants to stay at Mclaren for his whole career certainly shows him up as more of a glory seeker than a record seeker - as does the bet with Ron Dennis about being Mclaren's first tripple champion - however we seen signs of Mr Hamilton feeling impatient with this
Sebastian Vettel is reknowned for his interest in stats and figures so maybe you'd class him as a record hunter but I can't help but feel that because of this love of stats that after he has 2 or 3 titles under his belt he might fancy the prospect of 'doing a schumacher' and bringing a once great team back to the front. Maybe a future move to Mercedes is on the cards?
What do you guys think? How many drivers can you think of who have acheived less in their career than they should out of loyalty or idiolism? Which former champions and present day drivers do you see as having their eyes on the prize and nuts to the rest of the world if it tries to get in their way?
Debate is nice but please lets not turn this into my driver is better than your driver. I'm not suggesting either way is better than the other I'm just interested in which drivers are percieved as what.