Verstappen claims Schumacher used illegitimate means at Benetton

Wombcat

Podium Finisher
The dutch newsite www.nu.nl publishes some quotes from a new Verstappen interview from the magazine nusport: http://www.nu.nl/sport/2687193/schumacher-gebruikte-verboden-hulpmiddelen.html (in dutch obviously):D
According to Verstappen Schumacher must have been using banned devices in 1994. He claims that while karting he was always faster and his only explanation is that Schumacher must have been using banned devices.
He says that he (Verstappen) was always right on the limit, and Schumacher was a lot faster, which he can't explain otherwise.
When speaking to Flavio Briatore at that time his answer was "let's not discuss this", which told enough to Verstappen. He also says that whenever he used Schumachers' car, like in Hockenheim when he spun, it was not possible to go as fast. The devices were not installed at the time.

This will further fuel the existing discussion about the 1994 WDC.

Although when Berger and Alesi arrived at Benetton they also found the Benetton undrivable.
 
At the end of the day we still cannot prove that Schumacher used illegitimate means while at Bennetton. Unless Schumi himself admits it I think we will never find out the truth.
 
Well it is a fact that 'suspect' software was found on the 1994 Benetton which had been there all year. It was thought to be launch control, which had been previously banned.
It was also this year that I believe Bennetton were caught with an illegal fuel rig, Schumacher was banned for 2 races after failing to take a stop go penalty for over taking on the warm up lap, and of course the famous crash into Damon to ensure victory in the drivers championship.

All in all not his best year.
 
At the end of the day we still cannot prove that Schumacher used illegitimate means while at Bennetton. Unless Schumi himself admits it I think we will never find out the truth.

That's the key, proving they were used, which no-one could. The FIA found that Benetton had illegal software but couldn't prove it was used, hence no action (apart from the fine when they supplied the ECU source code late along with McLaren). In my opinion it's why the FIA shafted Schumi and Benetton for the black flag at Silverstone and the DSQ at Spa.
And it's no wonder Jos is bitter after the team half barbecued him at GermanyLOL
 
In other words - Schumacher soundly beat Verstappen whilst he was at Benetton, and the only way he could explain this was because there must have been something "dodgy" on Schumacher's car which wasn't on his! If Schumacher hadn't repeated the feat with Herbert, Irvine, Barricehello, Massa (And Patrese in 1993), then there might have been a case to answer.....
 
At the end of the day, its all hot air unless Jos can actually prove that Schumi used illegal devices. The flip side is simply that Jos wasn't good enough when it came to F1, karting is no indication of performance in an F1 car, it may be a way into F1, but by no means does it indicate a drivers speed..
 
PS - I find it extraordinary that people still go on about Schumacher in 1994 - He won the title with only 12 races compared with everyone else's 16 - even IF he had illegal software on the car, the fact is he scored 92 points out of a possible 120 (76% of the available points) - whereas his nearest championship rival scored 91 points out of a possible 160.... 57% of all available points)...... That was one of the most dominant displays we've ever seen!
 
To be honest, it's all a moot point anyway - the history books have Schumi as the 94 champ, and that's that. Whether you choose to believe he got there by fair means or foul depends entirely upon your viewpoint. It's only the Senna movie that has dragged all this up again really (even Mrs Bones asked about the Benetton TC allegations after being dragged unwillingly to see it!).
Once Verstappen got his hands on a halfway decent car (the Orange Arrows wasn't terrible after all - just unreliable) he did show some startling pace on occasion - though never quite enough to trouble the big boys.
One wonders how competitive JJ Lehto would have been in Verstappen's stead, had he not broken his neck pre-season?
 
I think people have missed the point Verstappen was thrown into the deep end because Lehto had an untimely accident in testing so really Jos was not ready for F1 to be honest no matter how good he looked in testing

We know Flavio is a crook . enough said

We know that Benetton when asked access to their system they first off all refused to provide access and got slapped on the wrist with a fine

it was only when the program "launch control" was found on their system that suspicion grew. There was no access to telemetry that stewards and officials can see today to make a call like crashgate 2009

We also know Benetton was a 1 man team as well

But before all this open garage to the public etc..teams did use to get up to all sorts of tricks once they shut the garage door or put a shielding wall
 
People also conventiently seem to forget, or at least fail to mention, that at least 2 other teams had launch control/traction control programming still on board. I recall that Arrows was one of them. Also, McLaren were found to have "questionable" shift strategies at the same time.

Basically, it comes down to what Rick D said.
 
People also conventiently seem to forget, or at least fail to mention, that at least 2 other teams had launch control/traction control programming still on board. I recall that Arrows was one of them. Also, McLaren were found to have "questionable" shift strategies at the same time.

Basically, it comes down to what Rick D said.

I don't remember Arrows but Mclaren were found to have a program which included automatic gearbox which was strictly forbidden

It was a question mark when Schumacher made an extreme fast getaway in Magny course ahead of the front row Williams that caused further suspicion

Like I said the stewards did not have telemetry graphic data then to judge whether the engine throttle and revving was suspicious to make that call

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THose days teams use to shut the garage door or put a wall so no one could see what was worked on in the car.

SOme teams have even said they swapped tyres with the other car and make it look like that car did the running

Some teams have deliberately underfuelled cars to make them light in quali and underweight which was illegal
 
Ferrari were also found to have traction control software and admitted using it in a practice session, an admission which was later recanted. The difference with Ferrari was that they supplied their source code immediately and therefore no action was taken. McLaren, Ferrari and Benetton were the only 3 teams found with any suspect software.
 
When Verstappen was doing bits for Dutch television he was always very arrogant and he once claimed he was better than almost everyone else driving in F1, and he deserved to win a championship but everyone was against him.

He's basically become a bit of a joke.
 
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