Brundle attacks Michael

Sporting Life

Michael Schumacher has been blasted for his on-track tactics by former Formula One team-mate Martin Brundle.

The six-time world champion should be acting as a role-model for young drivers rather than taking every opportunity to ram them off the track, says the ITV pundit.

"Michael sets a bad example as far as I am concerned as he will run everybody off the road at the first opportunity," said Brundle, who was Schumacher's team-mate at Benetton in 1992.

"He did it in Formula Three in Macau, he did it to me and he has even put his own brother into the wall.

"I am a massive fan of Michael's and I respect him enormously but he will cross the line and he should be setting a better example to young drivers.

"Sure you have got to race hard and it is so hard to draw the line, but you have got to have discipline."

Schumacher has regularly been criticised by his fellow drivers for being too aggressive on the track when fighting for position, with several incidents in recent years with David Coulthard, Juan Pablo Montoya and younger brother Ralf.

The most recent example came at last summer's British Grand Prix at Silverstone when the German escaped a penalty after forcing Renault's young Spanish driver Fernando Alonso on to the grass.

The 35-year-old grabbed his first drivers' crown in 1994 after a last-race collision with Damon Hill which many believe was deliberate while he failed in a similar attempt in 1997 when he tried to put Jacques Villeneuve into the Spanish sand in their title decider at Jerez.

But Brundle believes the Ferrari driver would not have been allowed to get away with such tactics had he been racing a decade earlier.

"If Michael has been about in the mid-1980s he would have been over the wall," added Brundle, who was giving the annual Motorsport Safety Fund Sid Watkins lecture in Birmingham today.

"He would not have been allowed to do it by Keke Rosberg, Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell."




Racing Is Life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting
Jesus may be able to heal the sick and bring the dead back to life, but he can't do shît for low fps

"If Michael has been about in the mid-1980s he would have been over the wall," added Brundle, who was giving the annual Motorsport Safety Fund Sid Watkins lecture in Birmingham today.

I don't know about that.Looking at the stats right infront of me i would say that it was 1981 when the hard racing became very hard.

Over the period of 1981-1983 there was a total of 32 races when race-ending collisions occured.Between 1988 and 1990 there were 31 such races.(69 in total in 10 year period).

Although the 90's and the new millenium had an even bigger rate of such incidents(96 in 1991-2000 period) i wouldn't attribute them to Schumacher alone.

In percent collisions out of race starts Schumacher(as of beginning of 2001) ranked second behind Hill,with the leading 4 being Hill,Schumacher,Villeneuve and Hakkinen(hardly what you would call a generation of drivers who moulded their driving after Schumacher's).I would think that the increased safety and what is more importantly the examples set in the 80's and probably a change in attitude led to a general increase in collisions.

While i generally accept Brundle's point about the on-track behaviour it should be noted that the origins of this problem come from the 80's,an era which heavily influenced the leading driver's of the 90's.So i believe that this criticism should not only be directed at Michael,but taken up broader.



Post Edited (01-09-04 19:47)

Everything in the past is better than today.It's true,I read it on the internet.

too right ellis



Post Edited (01-09-04 19:46)

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24 Heures Du Mans 18-19 June 2005

i totally agree with brundle

altho he can do what he wants, its just when the other drivers back off that annoys me


what schumacher needs, is to pull a chop on somone lik ehe did to alonso in silverstone, but the driver needs to just keep his foot in it, and take schuey off at that speed

that woudl give hima fright and would make him think twice about doing it again

i think he knows jpm will do that, and now also alonso would too, but button/webber/fisi etc all would still back off i think

no one should do that

its plane stupid



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24 Heures Du Mans 18-19 June 2005

I think MS is ok now, rite after what happened with JV in 1997. He is a fast and aggressive driver... We should be more concerned with Montoyaz attitude on-track





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MS is not ok now. Silverstone being a good example

And everytime Michael has been in the position of a title on the line in an on track battle its ended up him turning in on another car. Wait until that situation popup again




Racing Is Life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting
Jesus may be able to heal the sick and bring the dead back to life, but he can't do shît for low fps

I went through the school of Mansell, Prost and Senna. That's where I drew my guidelines from and that guideline is very different form what we have today. In the past it was okay to do certain things that you can't get away with now.

Michael Schumacher


I think what is happening today can be attributed to 4 things:

-the effect that the "heroes" have on younger drivers(something that Brundle pointed out)

-the natural progression of society towards erasing ethical values(e.g. bigger pressure to achieve success,commercial interests placed above integrity)

-the inability of the FIA in the early stages and now to send a clear message about acceptable behaviour levels

-the change in technologies and circuit layouts when there's often a single line and there is a bigger chance that there will be two drivers fighting over a single piece of track.

I strongly believe that even if you remove Michael from the picture the standarts of driving would change very little.



Post Edited (01-09-04 20:22)

Everything in the past is better than today.It's true,I read it on the internet.

what schumacher needs, is to pull a chop on somone lik ehe did to alonso in silverstone, but the driver needs to just keep his foot in it, and take schuey off at that speed

i agree that it would give Schumacher a fright n maybe teach him a bit of a lesson, but I don't think any driver would keep his foot on it (with the possible exception of montoya) and throw away what could b a good race result and risk injuring themselves/spectators in a high speed crash.



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Schumacher clearly races hard and leaves not quater but i dont think that he should be singled out as the only one who has ever raced like this. I dont like his swerving tactics but just the other day i was watching the 1993 season review and Senna chopped Prost and Schumacher many times to keep ahead. Schumacher is not the only one throughout history who does this.



"Ayrton Senna crosses the line, you can see his exultation he knows he is the world champion." -- Murrary Walker Suzuka 1988

i agree

montoya may keep his foot on it, but i doubt it as he wants to go for the championship too

you keep your foot in like some are suggesting, you get killed, its a stupid idea, schumacher doesnt give any room as nor does montoya, but neither certainly keep there foot in in the way you suggest

however, on senna he did some bad things, but a lot of the blocking in 93 was just fantastic driving, and car positioning, however, things like monaco in 1992, were more controversial



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24 Heures Du Mans 18-19 June 2005

I'm with Martin on all of that. Couldn't agree more.



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Sorry guys, my forum is down.

i read it on teletext was shocked as brundle never really says much about drivers.

I remember when he blaster Alesi for having him in the wall in Brazil but he has never before slagged off MS and I am sure MS will be shocked as the 2 of them get on well.

I agree with some of the things that Brundle said and also some of what Oleg says as well.

In some races in the 80 drivers would bang wheels but the cars did not fall apart as they were metal and not carbon.

Powerhorse your comment about keeping your foot in it and having MS off is a bit dangerous. Do u really think Alonso wants to hit a rear tyre at 200MPH no wonder he backed off and MS knows people will.

He is hard on the track and has done some stupid dangerous things and I dont like it, probably more than most world champs but there are many other drivers that have done the same as him. Mansell, prost, senna, piquet, Mika, DC, RS, RB, AF loads. Even brundle has he got beat by senna as he was not tough enough. In F1 he was not tough enough either.

I like Brundle but his comments have come far to late, he has had many years to say what he has said now

I have to say I'm disappointed with what Brundle has said. I agree marcl - why make these comments now? Just when Schumacher's driving is at its most mature (although it was hardly immature before!) and he is driving at his best. The comments would have been more pertinent after Jerez 1997, for example, when Michael did make a catastrophic error which he regrets.

And I can't help but laugh when I read people saying things like "Montoya wouldn't back off if Schumi gave him the chop". Are you that desperate to try and make him look bigger than Schumacher? Do you think Montoya is stupid? He's ballsy, there's no doubt about it, and courageous when it comes to finding a way past, but he isn't an idiot. Michael squeezes people out because he knows he's racing with professionals, and he can push the boundary while remaining in relative safety - sometimes it becomes very tight, but what would motorracing be without extremely tight situations at high speed? He knows they'll back off - he's been forced to back off himself - Kimi at Melbourne in 2003 made him do it, Hakkinen forced him onto the grass at the start of the 2000 British Grand Prix, and he had to take his foot out of it. I'm glad to see people are appreciating that Michael isn't the only one who does it.

What I'm not glad to see is Brundle highlighting Macau 1989 - damnit when are people going to get it right? I don't care what Michael said after that race, the footage clearly shows Mika running into the back of Michael. I can't see where people come from when they accuse Schumi of taking out Hakkinen. It doesn't add up. A simple blocking manouevre caught out an over-optimistic Hakkinen.




HISTORIC BTCC VIDEOS

Schumacher is in the mold of Senna, who was ruthless and patented the "win the championship by crashing into your rival" move that Schumacher has taken to heart. I was not a Senna fan, for all his brilliance it seemed he would rather end up off the road with a rival than be passed. Prost stooped to Senna's level, which really damaged his credibility in my eyes, and Schumacher was obviously watching. I particularly hate seeing the "Schumacher Chop" across the grid at the start, which will be imitated by the next generation of drivers that find themselves on the front row.
Everyone says there should be more passing in F1 and blames the lack on the cars and tracks - but it's also driving tactics like this that prevent the guy behind from taking the risk.

I agree marcl - why make these comments now?

Because your just reading what has been written and not thinking about the Logic behind it

Theres no chance that martin actually came out and send this for no reason. For one reason or another, the press would have asked MArtin a question, and this was his answer. This was his honest answer. why say this now? Because this is when the question was asked

Alex - Michael lied about Macau. Why do innocent people lie?

Other drivers are most likly guilty, but do remember Brundle wud have been asked about Michael, and not other drivers. It looks like hes singling out Michael, but the question would most likly have done that for him. And if eh did talk about others, they wud have missed that bit ut to get the michael stuff just for a story.




Racing Is Life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting
Jesus may be able to heal the sick and bring the dead back to life, but he can't do shît for low fps

Its fair to say i'm not michaels biggest fan ( cue lots of " theres an understatment ) and i don't like when he chops across at the beginning of the race, which is very very dangerous

But other drivers are guilty of the same crime and this is top flight racing where the drivers are the best in the world

and one thing you can say is that its exciting to watch

and at the end of the day, excitement is what we tune into every other sunday afternoon during the F1 season



Post Edited (01-10-04 00:02)




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And I can't help but laugh when I read people saying things like "Montoya wouldn't back off if Schumi gave him the chop". Are you that desperate to try and make him look bigger than Schumacher?

dont understand, no one is trying to say that at all, and we could easily reverse it, what was being said is that schumacher gives montoya the respect unlike others who he would be more enclined to chop

Michael squeezes people out because he knows he's racing with professionals, and he can push the boundary while remaining in relative safety - sometimes it becomes very tight, but what would motorracing be without extremely tight situations at high speed?/i]

he does more than that though, he pushes people off most of the time, or does extremely dangerous moves, hes over aggressive to the extent other drivers face back of be off the track, its stupid



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24 Heures Du Mans 18-19 June 2005

I totally disagree with this comment 100% Montoya would never forcefully put another driver in danger or try to sabotage another mans race like Shumacher does or has done. I can argue 100% against all Montoya's driving incidents last year and feel alot of bias was placed in the Ferrarri camp even the incident with Rubens at Indy you could clearly see Montoya had the racing line and still had two wheels on the track. Montoya tries to overtake an opponent were they least expect it and this catches alot of drivers napping. Shumacher on the other hand will try to remove his opponent if he feels his position is threatened.
I did enjoy last years comment from Ross over the spin Shumacher endured due to Montoya's move. Montoya needs more "class" You wouldn't get that from Mika. Class? I think Hill, JV, Alonso, Coulthard, Frentzen and Mika may have some lessons for the German about Class.



The clouds will part and the sky cracks open and god himself will reach his F***ing arm through JUST TO PUSH YOU DOWN JUST TO HOLD YOU DOWN