Okay you're right, I wasn't clear enough. What I meant was that some drivers seem to have this ability to be able to take a slow car and somehow drag pace out of it kicking and screaming. I did not mean a car which was uncompetative (as in your examples) I meant a car that for some reason was not performing at a particular track, or a car that he doesn't like the handling of that much. An example of the former is Hungary last year, for some reason the Ferrari didn't perform too well all weekend, and Michael was helpless to sort it out. An example of the latter is the F2003-GA...its handling characteristics weren't quite to Michael's taste (due to its long wheel base) But Rubens proved the car was a real stunner by matching Schumi's impressive speed almost all season. In the F2003-GA Michael was made to look (for want of a better word) Ordinary...but saying that his true brilliance shone through by still winning the championship (with a bit of help from a bdly timed Tyre complaint and some fortunate weather lol).
Also in '92 Schumi has Brundle as a team mate...brundle used to cause even Senna some real problems in British F3 so he was by no means a slow driver, he was however very unfortunate. Also in '92 the car itself was indeed quick amonst other things the high nose really helped.
You said "in '97 still in a John Barnard car"...are you implying that a John Barnard designed car is not good??? Because if you are you must be forgetting that the man was the genius behind the first ever carbonfibre monocoque F1 chassis. His cars are good (altho i will agree that the '96 model wasn't
)
I will agree with you about the Ferrari turn-around topic however, I don't belive it is all down to Michael (as you probably guessed from my previous post)...But you're right, Luca di Montezemolo and Jean Todt especially have worked what can only be described as miracles.
Oh btw, your comment about his never having a truely world class teamate, it is a shame he never did...I mean could you imagine him and Mika at the same team...it would be Prost and Senna all over again!
Silence is golden when you don't know a good answer.