Answer with your head and not with your heart pls. I heard he used tracktion control when it was illegal during his first championship too. Is this true?
2007-04-01 22:32:21 · 7 answers · asked by Cavallino Silver 4 in Sports ➔ Auto Racing ➔ Formula One
About the inspections, well, in fact the FIA decided to allow tracktion control a few years later because it was too hard (impossible) to detect. So there it is.
2007-04-02 01:19:17 · update #1
I checked that on an internet source by the way... I think wikipedia.
2007-04-02 01:20:08 · update #2
Alot of what you decide on this is going to depend on your point of view and how you look at some of the traditions in auto-racing... but first, just what I recall on the particulars.
The incident with Hill wasn't as blatant to my eyes as it was to some. I've never been sure this was an intentional hit and alot of this seems like it was down to some impatience on Hill's part. That said, if it was intentional, it was a very heads up manuever on Michael's part as it was done at a point where he had to do it, and a point that would pass the attention of the race stewards.
The Vileneuve incident was more blatant I think, and a care where it was some impatience on Schumacher's part that got the better of him. But it is something that happens in racing, though in an ideal world perhaps it wouldn't.
The TC issue! Bottom line, they weren't cheating because FIA found no violation. Likewise for all the other cases where accusations were made but never founded - it doesn't mean the teams were trying something underhanded or stretching any possible interpretation of the rules, it just means that they did so within the letter of the law or within the letter that could be enforced.
Which segues nicely to how you look at it. Professional racing is often about (as Donohue put it so nicely in his autobiography) "the unfair advantage." Porsche made a legacy in sports car racing at finding loopholes in the rules that allowed them a better car than the competition. Past F1 champions drove their competition off the road when given the chance. Teams used illegal tires and fuels and sometimes, even would manage to switch entire cars between the technical inspection and the actual race!
If you judge a driver or a team on the success of winning races, then winning at all costs is still winning. So stretching the rules to nearly breaking is genius, and stretching them past breaking is regretable!
If you want to judge strictly on success within a tightly confined law of honor and sportsmanship... well, you probably should be watching a low level of amatuer racing. Because anyone that has risen to the level of F1, either as a driver or a team, has already learned and bought into that they need to win! Due to his historic levels of success and the fact that he did so at a time when cameras watch every corner of every track and the media cover ever FIA investigation in detail, some have felt his actions have been especially unsporting.
While Senna and Honda were running off other drivers and stretching the rules to near breaking, people have been able to let it go. And likewise with every other champion (Hill and Villeneuve's own questionable moves included). Michael Schumacher drove to win. Some of his moves created incidents that some find questionable... but the end result, all of these were reviewed by the race stewarts and either cleared or punished. He won alot of races and championships. That is the bottom line.
2007-04-02 07:48:55 · answer #1 · answered by Paul S 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I watched an awesome documentary on this not so long ago. Racing drivers are paid to win, and that is exactly what Schumi did when he made sure that Hill and Villeneuve did not finish. Despite the fact that to a neutral observer, they looked like cheating moves, he did exactly what was required to win the Championship.
When asked about it, Schumi could find nothing wrong with what he did, and was willing to do it again! When other drivers were asked whether they would do the same, they agreed. It's put of the psychological make-up of a top class driver.
As for traction control, cars that do not pass scrutineering before and after the race are disqualified, so one has to say that he did not use an illegal vehicle as the results were confirmed by the stewards.
2007-04-01 22:45:26 · answer #2 · answered by Crikey 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is no point of cheating, If you know the correct rules and regulations of FIA then you wouldnt have said it. According to FIA rules, every car must be scrutinise before and after every race and for that every team must leave their cars to the scrutineers before 48 hours of the commensement of race and they will check the cars with no team members present over there except the race stewards( a five member team with all foriegners and do not belong to the country in which the race is held). So, do you think that an inspection of this kind would spare any one......think about it, Schumi was not at all a cheater, Schumi is great...........NMN
2007-04-02 00:15:38 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ferrari Fan, just because a driver is better than his rivals, does not mean that he didn't cheat.
Yes, Schumacher deliberately punted off Villenueve and Hill, which was against the rules, so could technically be called cheating, but it's nothing worse than anything Senna ever did.
As for the Traction Control issue, it is rumoured that Benetton were running TC after it was banned, but because of the way it was implemented, ie it was electrical rather than mechanical, it couldn't be proven and that's why so called Driver Aids were re-introduced to F1, the FIA are happy to admit this, so that's as close to confirmation that Benetton and Schumacher were cheating that you can really get.
2007-04-02 06:30:23 · answer #4 · answered by Red Five 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it wouldn't surprise me. I hate the guy. Although, to be fair, teams always bring in advanced technology into a new season and it takes investigation by the FIA before any bans are made so if he did use TC, then it wasn't his fault.
He brought too much disrepute into the world of F1 and I think that he blatantly cheated in both cases that you mention but because he is/was so far up Bernie's bum, that he managed to get away with murder!
Good riddance!
2007-04-01 22:38:57 · answer #5 · answered by Mister Man 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
no michael didnt cheat. He is a better driver than both Hill and Villeneuve.
2007-04-02 03:25:29 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
aha....i think so...
he's been cheating all the time....
2007-04-02 02:46:02 · answer #7 · answered by Kaya 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋