Title says it all. My view is that he should. He said his reason for coming back was to repay Mercedes for the support they gave him early on in his career. But he isn't helping them, he's hindering them. He's no longer offering anything to the sport, he's become a figure of derision, he's in danger of leaving his legacy in tatters and he says he feels no joy for the sport. There's nothing keeping him here any more, and I feel Nico Hulkenberg has a lot more to offer sport. He's wasted doing the odd Friday test for Force India and his performances last year more than merited a drive this year. And as a German he fits in perfectly with the Team Germany thing Mercedes have going on. Come on Schumi, do the right thing. You had your career, now hand over the reins and let Nico have his. By the way, I'm surprised this hasn't come up yet. If it has I apologise and will merge the threads.
The man is a 7 times WDC so I don't think that anything, short of crashing into someone and killing them, is going to tarnish his legacy too much. How about another question; Would staying on and performing under par be more embarrassing then quitting early? To my mind, if he sticks it out it at least shows that it was something he tried that didn't work out despite his best efforts. If he quits now though, it would be like admitting that he was never as good as he was perceived to be.
Mercedes GP has given its full backing to him today. That might be a smokescreen to allow them to discuss the rest of his season in private or it might reflect a genuine sense of compassion. Not being a fan of Schumacher Mk. I, a small (very small) part of me would actually like to see him win a race before he's gone forever - especially because his comeback has confirmed that his legacy is the result of restricting competition, not beating it. Mercedes seem to be right on the brink of a breakthrough and I think it would be a shame if he retired in the next few weeks and then Mercedes went on to win with Rosberg or Hulkenberg.
Well, that's debatable. Obviously, he was in a very privileged position of having the entire team built around him and having one of, if not sometimes, the best car. But I don't think it's possible to win a WDC without being a very good driver. It's not like he was driving the car from Knightrider which was doing all the work for him. Some might argue, myself included, that his current form also has something to do with being out of the sport for 3 years, being 42 and having to compete against the monsters that Adrian Newey has created these last 2 seasons?
Yes. -Although of course to do so will be admitting defeat and show him as an almost complete failure this time around. However, I sincerely hope he does not. The longer this goes on, the better. It is helping form a far more accurate picture than his distorted statistics have suggested to so many for so long. For this reason, I hope he continues until he's older than me. If he achieves that he will finally justify my admiration, if only for astonishing longevity… Something I find easier to admire is Genji's rather more magnanimous stance than mine. I find it difficult to be sentimental about someone who shows such little regard for justice or respect to his peers, fellow human beings or competitors. Justice matters to me so please keep going as long as good old Norbert will allow you …'Schumi'…
He built his first career on testing and putting in the hours to get the car right, this era of F1 isn't for him, I think he should walk away as a form of damage limitation for his legacy as one of the greats. If I was him I'd play the age card and say he got it wrong in coming back.
Yes Nick, in reality, that's his best move. I just hope his ego interferes with his perception of reality - as I suspect it will. Ultimately, Schumacher's 'legacy' (for better or worse) relies upon him not believing his own hype! For personal reasons, I hope he does not change but continues to believe it. That way it makes the truth less confusing for public digestionââ¬Â¦ Please keep going ââ¬Â¦'Schumi'ââ¬Â¦ you top bloke! - You are not deluded and you are not deluding the crystal clear loyalty of your followers. You can beat everybody really, even Nuvo, Fang and Clark, regardless of whatever you did or how old you areââ¬Â¦ Please keep going for at least another century: a task beyond the mere mortals but you can do it. Statistics never lie Please accept my apologies Manny. Although I have only met one of you, as I have said suggested before, you are more worthy than the 'hero' who does not deserve you.
Yeah I mean obviously my magnanimity completely overlooks the kinds of moves he's pulled since his return, like on Massa in Canada and Barrichello in Hungary last year - two loyal footsoldiers he owes more to than he seems prepared to admit. I understand he also spiked Eddie Irvine's drink at the Amber Lounge party in Monaco last year.
Any driver willingly (stupidly) joining the Schuey 'team' for the 'prestige' and MONEY has prostituted themselves to his ego. I don't really have sympathy. They should have known they would be the bullet-stopper for him - the bullet-dodger.
I think people need to see the whole picture. I think he knows he'll ever be top dog, however as no one can put the hours in testing you neeed to get as much info as you can to develop the car, how do you get that? Simple, you put a very experience driver who knows how to develop a car and let him race it. We all know how good a combination Brawn and Schumacher are, they dominated the sport for years, look how quickly the car has improved. He already has a legacy of his own with a record 7 titles, now he's going to try and give the German people their own legacy, in much the same way Ferrari have given the Italians one. The rise of the German Silver Arrows. F1 isn't just about driving fast it's about making the car fast too, and no one can do that like Schumacher/Brawn. I'm not a schumacher fan, btw, but it's how I see the situation. From a personal point of view he's not doing himself any favours by staying, but from a team perspective would you want the guy who could help deliver a car to WDC winning standard to retire?
Short of giving him a private test track that he can pound around in the car on for hours and hours, day after day, I don't think Schumacher can help develop the car to a WDC-winning standard. I don't believe he has the nous. There are much better development drivers as well as much better race drivers in F1 now than he is or ever was. In that respect I agree with the O.P. and other posters that Schumacher is hurting Mercedes, whatever my hopes for an interesting story being written with a Schumacher victory. Without the advantages the regulations gave him in the 1990s/2000s, Schumacher really ain't up to snuff.
If that's the case they should hire Schumacher in a consultancy position similar to the one he held for a while at Ferrari. That way he'd be able to relay what the Nicos are feeling in the car to the engineers. That's assuming the two aren't capable of it themselves. Rosberg has been around a while now, he's had a year learning from Schumacher. Hulkenberg has a year under his belt as Rubens understudy, who I also believe is the best driver to learn from, hugely experienced and very intelligent.
I don't think Schumacher should retire, not so soon anyway. If he continues to be a liability for Mercedes at amost every race of the season, he might not even get the chance to quit, because the team might replace him. I do feel that others drivers like Nico Hulkenburg would do a much better job and he deserves to be on the grid, but for now I think Schumacher's future should remain stable at least until the end of the season. From there we will see what happens. Oh and AG, how did you get so much rep? I don't understand how the system works - I was on 17, then 2 positive rep from this board and 2 (deserving) negative rep from the Liverpool board -- and my rep now stands at 25.
First things first, good effort winding up the scousers. There's a thread on the moderator board asking for you to be banned. My rep is high because the system gets used a lot on the Newcastle, and lot of users on there have high rep power. I think I rep'd you at some point recently, which would've given you six points. The scousers probably had less rep power and that's why your rep went up overall.
Would this type of discussion be better held through the Private Messaging facility? - It bears no relevance to the thread.
