Thursday August 17, 2006
The Guardian
Jacques Villeneuve has accused Michael Schumacher of a succession of dirty tricks and deliberately lying to his fans and fellow drivers. In a remarkable personal attack on the seven-times champion he concludes that the Ferrari driver will soon be forgotten once he finally retires from driving.
Villeneuve, who won the 1997 world championship driving a Williams-Renault, delivered his broadside in an interview to be published next week in F1 Racing magazine. Bemoaning what he believes to be a shortage of real stars in formula one, Villeneuve, who was replaced in the BMW Sauber line-up by the novice Robert Kubica from the Hungarian grand prix, fires the first salvo by claiming that Schumacher lacks the star quality to be lauded on the same level as Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost or Nigel Mansell.
"I think the problem is that you don't ever see his true personality," he said. "He's a racer - but a pure racer, nothing but a racer and, because of that, I think the day he hangs up his helmet people will just forget him. Senna, by contrast, will never be forgotten. Some of that is the James Dean factor, of course, because he was killed in action at a young age, but not all of it. I don't even think Michael will live on in people's memories as strong or as long as Prost has - certainly not as strong or as long as Mansell has. Those people attained a hero status that Michael never has and never will."
Villeneuve feels that Schumacher displayed his true colours during qualifying for this year's Monaco grand prix when he skidded to a halt, blocking the track and preventing Fernando Alonso from completing his own qualifying run. He clearly brackets this with the episode at Jerez during the 1997 European grand prix when Schumacher's Ferrari collided with his Williams in what turned out to be the race that decided the championship in the Canadian driver's favour.
"Michael simply isn't a great champion because he's played too many dirty tricks and because he isn't a great human being," said Villeneuve. "Yes, Senna played dirty tricks too but he did it with more class, more integrity. When he took Prost out [in the Japanese grand prix] at Suzuka in 1990, he said he was going to do it before the race.
"So, unlike Michael, who ridiculously insisted he was innocent at Monaco this year, Senna said, 'Yes, I did it. But I told you before the race that I was going to do it.' That's very different from what Michael did at Monaco and Jerez [in 1997] and Adelaide [in 1994 where he collided controversially with Damon Hill].
"Senna wasn't lying to the fans. Michael was. And the sad thing is that, of course, the fans accept it - they swear black is white, in fact - just so that they can go on respecting the sport they love. And Michael takes advantage of that loyalty."
What particularly annoyed Villeneuve was Schumacher's arrogant defiance even towards his peers during a meeting of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association convened at Silverstone over the British grand prix weekend specifically to discuss his behaviour at Monaco.
"But he lies not only to fans but to his fellow drivers, too," said Villeneuve. "At the GPDA meeting at Silverstone he lied to us [about his qualifying incident at Monaco] and he didn't even have the decency to appear embarrassed about it. He just stared in our eyes and lied. And we all knew we were being lied to but very few of us bothered to say anything [Villeneuve, Alex Wurz and Pedro de la Rosa were the only ones who did] because most are scared of Michael or just wanted the meeting to be over so that they could go and watch the World Cup, which was a pathetic way to behave when there was such an important matter under discussion.
"It's quite sad, really - because the reason Michael did what he did is that he thinks he's better than the rest of us. He thinks he's bigger than the sport, too, but he isn't. And when he retires, and no one really remembers him, that will become clear."
Villeneuve also believes that formula one has spawned a generation of drivers who are so intimidated by their teams that they lack the ability to think for themselves - or analyse any responsibility they might have for driving errors on the circuit. "Some drivers are totally willing to accept what their teams tell them - namely that they're at the bottom of the food chain," he said. "You know, 'You're here to drive, nothing more.'
"That affects their mind-sets adversely and that's why you never really get drivers admitting culpability in racing incidents these days. They can't even recognise their own culpability because they've been programmed not to admit to it. And because less intelligence and responsibility are expected of them, they display less intelligence and responsibility, which is ultimately a safety problem."
How it all began
Jacques Villeneuve went head to head with Michael Schumacher for the 1997 world title in the final race of the season, the European grand prix at Jerez. "I wasn't on new tyres from the start and I had to struggle to keep up with Michael," said Villeneuve, who moved into second place with a gap of four or five seconds. But by the time they made their first refuelling stops the gap was much less. On lap 47, going into the Dry Sack right-hander, Villeneuve made his move. He dived down the inside of the Ferrari and the cars collided as Schumacher deliberately turned into him. The Ferrari was beached in the gravel and Villeneuve struggled home third. Schumacher was stripped of all his championship points for the season as punishment.
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/formulaone/ ... e_continue
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Finnaly someone from F1 and even better an F1 champion who sees things as I do
