Prost, Senna, Shumacher

Well indeed it wasn't a lot different from the Schumacher v Hill thing. Britain loves an underdog and if they're british amd up against an all conquering foreigner then that just inflates the whole perception.

Brits weren't so keen on Senna because basically he was so bloody good and beat "our Nige" a lot. And Schumacher v Hill came right on the tail of that and hence was a natural extension of this perception.

Being young and immature I definitely fed into that at the time. But I no longer do. I like it when the Brits do well and Button is right up there amongst my favourites drivers, but the oppsosition is no longer the evil foe to be reviled. Instead I revere the quality of Alonso, Vettel etc like I shouid have revered Senna at the time and not simply afterwards.

I also think that had there not been a Mansell, Hill or comparable Brit in a top car winning races between 91-95 then Schumacher wouldn't have attracted the hate factor that he did. He'd have been seen as the excellent young driver who took the fight to Senna and Prost and generally well liked for it.

To be honest, with Schumacher v Hill, I think Schumacher did get vilified unfairly by the UK press. Hill was actually guilty of causing most of their collisions and incidents in '94-'95(Silverstone and Monza in '95 were just sheer stupidity on Hill's part, and in Adelaide '94 he was at least guilty of not waiting for a more sensible moment to try and pass MS) and afterwards as well(I remember him driving like a complete idiot at Montreal in '98 when MS went to pass him, and blocking MS deliberately at Suzuka in '97), and to be blunt Damon is an easy person to dislike at the best of times. His behaviour on-track against Schumacher often reflected this. But because he was a Brit he seemed to be loved unconditionally, and Schumacher hated unconditionally - at least while they were title rivals.

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Guimengo Wrote:
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> I think the Schumacher hate is due to the fact he
> and Ferrari had some dodgy calls made in their
> favor, the clear #1 status complete with team
> orders, the illegal 1994 car, and the deliberate
> drive-into-people moves.

Guimengo, you mention one of the reasons why the hate of Shumacher is possibly due to the fact of "the deliberate drive-into-people moves".

If you have brought that up do you hate/feel negative feelings towards Senna for doing the same thing?

The principles of Senna's and Schumacher's driving are similar, but the execution was different - Senna was much more blatant in general than Schumacher, who(with the odd exception like Hungary 2010) was more subtle in the way he moved about on the track to stop a rival getting past. Senna tended to stick to the racing line, let the other guy make a move up the inside and then "slice" across in front of them, forcing them to back off or have a crash. Schumacher has always tended to check his mirrors more and move defensively when the other guy moved.
I think a lot of the Schumacher hate has been caused by his tendency to do cheeky/rude/dodgy things and escape punishment for them. The reaction to his "parking" stunt at Monaco in 2006 would be a good example.

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Malaysia 2001 is always the killer for me.

Montoya should have parked his car, gone up to the stewards and punched every one of them.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

Don't you mean Malaysia 2002? :P

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