Michael Schumacher not as adaptable as previously thought?

[Jersey Tom]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/85823

"I think the characteristic we have on the front tyre at the moment is quite unusual, in the way because of the construction and choice of compounds, you put a load into it and it doesn't give more grip – it just flat lines, and that isn't very common for a tyre," Brawn added.

i thought this is quite interesting....

Maybe. Depends what he means. Then again Ross Brawn's exposure to tires is fairly narrow.

[Belatti]

I would say a combination of the many factors cited here, not one alone.

He is trying a Rocky VI with no sucess.

[xpensive]

I ´m surprised just how many people feel inclined to show him now ,warwick the next bloke to have to rub in some old sentiment..
That Michael Schumacher seems not to have too many friends these days.
i wonder how it would have been if he was winning .

The man never had many friends, outside of Germany anyway, when you win too much with the wrong attitude, these things can happen.

[WhiteBlue]

I believe that age, the tyre problem and the blocking of technical developments are a problem for him. Only last weekend Mercedes had to go back to the Silverstone diffusor because the new for Germany one did not stand the heat of the exhaust.

Michael and Nico both tried different set ups and Michael developed the worse. He hoped it would work better with race fuel but that wasn't happening either. So he struggles with the car and the short development time that is now available.

This is also his first year without electronics development and with standard ECU. He loved the times of unrestricted electronics development. Few people could optimize electronic driver aids as well as Michael Schumacher could. He had a knack to work with his software engineers to create unbeatable systems. During his first career they had active suspension, TC, launch control, ABS and every conceivable gimmick you can imagine. Some of these cars were still beasts to drive from the shear performance but Benetton and Ferrari were very good at taking these things to the limits. Only McLaren was in the same league but Hakkinen, DC, Montoya and Reikkonen were not as eager to test and develop things as Michael was.

So there are probably many different reasons that all come together.

[ringo]

So he is not as adaptable as we would like to think then?
Given all these challenges he is facing, shouldn't he adapt to them quickly, as expected from him before he first drove the brawn?
I remember some fans were giving him 3 or 6 races to get settled.

[Pierce89]

I think Micheal needs alot of front grip to succeed , not just an oversteering car. This year they have been trying to unhook the rear end to get the correct balnce, when I think they should have been searching for good efficient front DF with a nicer front wing design. Their front wing looks like the 1968 Gold Leaf Lotus. to summarise:no, he is not as adaptable as I once believed.

[donskar]

One more thing -- the Mercedes is not very good.

[ahmedvortex]

to be adaptable on everything it's a legend who stops before f1 , each driver have certain natural weight balance for the car as the surf board balance , and for tacking Alonso as example all the cars that he droved were suited for him because he was always the 1 st driver , in the case of Michael the car was developed by Button and we all know that he felt in love with under-steery cars as Rosberg ( and Michael still close within all the factors that certain evocate ) , and for le mans episode he is responsible for the fastest time of that edition , by night and in the end of a stilt not bad for a beginner in those times .

[Pierce89]

Nico and Jensen have both come out and said they don't like understeer. Jensen said his style actually produces understeer so he prefers a neutral to slightly oversteery car. That excuse is absolutely false.

[Pierce89]

One more thing -- the Mercedes is not very good.

good enough for Nico to bag 3 podiums by halfway through the season.

[ahmedvortex]

Nico and Jensen have both come out and said they don't like understeer. Jensen said his style actually produces understeer so he prefers a neutral to slightly oversteery car. That excuse is absolutely false.

shttp://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/Button-feels-partly-responsible-for-Schumacher-s-struggle.html sorry

[marcush.]

again ,it´s not like he´s seconds behind his teammate...In fact he is quite close in qualy and race pace more often than not.
He´s definitely the better starter /1st lap guy compared to Rosberg.
But obviously he´´s unable to manage the tyres as well as Nico .
He has lost big time more than once due to weird startegies or rule interpretation mishaps ,something you can hardly account to him being worse than before.

to me ,it is obvious that he is by far not at the level I expected from him in this phase of the season ,and possibly it has to do with the car being not competitive enough.
for sure nobody would have won a grandprix this year with that car yet.

[myurr]

again ,it´s not like he´s seconds behind his teammate...In fact he is quite close in qualy and race pace more often than not.
He´s definitely the better starter /1st lap guy compared to Rosberg.
But obviously he´´s unable to manage the tyres as well as Nico .
He has lost big time more than once due to weird startegies or rule interpretation mishaps ,something you can hardly account to him being worse than before.

to me ,it is obvious that he is by far not at the level I expected from him in this phase of the season ,and possibly it has to do with the car being not competitive enough.
for sure nobody would have won a grandprix this year with that car yet.

Yes the car is uncompetitive, but Schumacher isn't anywhere near the level of Rosberg in the same car. A tenth or two would, I guess, be just about acceptable, but in some qualifying sessions and races he's over half a second off despite us now being well into the second half of the season. Whatever the reason, Schumacher simply isn't performing at the moment.

They even changed the cars wheelbase to help him and for a single he was faster than Nico whilst he struggled to adapt. From memory I think the next race was pretty equal but since then it's been almost entirely Nico that's been delivering. To me this shows that they changed the car to make it more to Michael's liking but he stagnated in performance whereas Nico was able to adapt again to the new suspensions requirements.

If he's not on Nico's pace within the first three races next year then he would be better off retiring as he's simply not living up to anyones expectations and is damaging his brand.

[xpensive]

I'd be surprised to see Schumacher on the grid next year, I think it's embarassing enough for him to see this season out.

As I said on another thread, it's easy to think with your heart, Haug must have painted a most romantic picture for the Mercedes board, why I question the xistance of the entire team if their performance doesn't shift dramatically within soon.

[Scuderia_Russ]

Put Alonso, Hamilton, Kubica or any other driver on vacation for 3 year and than change motors, tires, and lots of other on cars and than judge Michael.

What he said.