Schumacher Jerez 1997

[Gerhard Berger]

One thing that i've always wondered was whether Schumacher had a problem with his car at Jerez 97 which allowed Villeneuve to get so close to him. I remember at the time, Brundle seemed to think he had a problem, but i never heard any details of the problem. Anyone know?

[manchild]

Every time when Schumacher was slower than someone else in whole of his career, it was due to problems or uncompetitiveness of his car. It was never his inability to match the rivals.

[Pandamasque]

But being brave and persistent in moments like that he soldiers on and keeps fighting the car until the car goes completely out of control and steers violently into an opponent.

[andrew]

His tyres were screwed. That's it in a nutshell.

From memory he was faster until the Goodyears started to grain then the Williams caught up.

As for the accident, it was a racing accident and nothing more - one car tried to take the racing line, the other made a lunge for the same piece of tarmac and the innevitable happened. The punishment was way over the top (and irrelevant - Schumacher is quite the campaigner for road safety anyway) and there have been worse incidents since.

I was always suspicious about the severity of the punishment....

EDIT,

Just read that the race officials deemed this a racing incident and that no further action needed to be taken, but Max Mosley decided to undermine the race officals.

[shelly]

His tyres were screwed. That's it in a nutshell.

From memory he was faster until the Goodyears started to grain then the Bridgestone shod Williams caught up.

Williams were on Goodyear too

[gridwalker]

You can tell that the lack of testing (and other regulatory restrictions) are STARVING this forum when this old chestnut comes up again ...

[Pandamasque]

As for the accident, it was a racing accident and nothing more - one car tried to take the racing line, the other made a lunge for the same piece of tarmac and the inevitable happened...

It wasn't inevitable at all. At first he did notice the opponent and instinctively steered left to avoid contact and allow racing room, then changed his mind and steered back towards the car on the right and hit it.
Yes, worse 'accidents' happened both before and after. But this once the penalty was somewhat appropriate.

[spinmastermic]

As for the accident, it was a racing accident and nothing more - one car tried to take the racing line, the other made a lunge for the same piece of tarmac and the inevitable happened...

It wasn't inevitable at all. At first he did notice the opponent and instinctively steered left to avoid contact and allow racing room, then changed his mind and steered back towards the car on the right and hit it.
Yes, worse 'accidents' happened both before and after. But this once the penalty was somewhat appropriate.

[andrew]

As for the accident, it was a racing accident and nothing more - one car tried to take the racing line, the other made a lunge for the same piece of tarmac and the inevitable happened...

It wasn't inevitable at all. At first he did notice the opponent and instinctively steered left to avoid contact and allow racing room, then changed his mind and steered back towards the car on the right and hit it.
Yes, worse 'accidents' happened both before and after. But this once the penalty was somewhat appropriate.

The race stewards disagree with your opinion. Copied this from Wikipedia:

Race officials issued a statement following the race stating that they had "unanimously concluded it was a racing accident and no further action is necessary."

[spinmastermic]

.......

[Pandamasque]

The race stewards disagree with your opinion.

Well it wasn't the first or the last time either!

[andrew]

HA!

I think we will probably have to agree to disagree on this one.

[ESPImperium]

Not this nutshell again.

Please let dead dogs lie please.

[Gerhard Berger]

The intention of my thread was actually to find out if Schumacher had a terminal problem with his car, and what that problem was, rather than bring up the Dry Sack incidient which has been discussed to death.

Anyway did a bit of searching, and Craig Pollock claimed that Schumacher had a water leak.

Also found that FW was asked what he would ask, if he could, a question of anyone in the pitlane to which they would have to give an honest answer and his reply was "I'd ask Michael if he knew of anything wrong with his car that day at Dry Sack in Jerez in 1997".

[manchild]

He had a leak - when he saw in the mirrors how fast Villenueve is approaching, he started wetting his pants.


andrew, in 2009. he admitted that it was deliberate:

http://www.crash.net/f1/news/154568/1/s ... could.html