Another great video and analysis! Just adding something to how he managed to carry more speed than others, specially in the 90's: I believe he was the first F1 driver to explore the left foot braking, trail braking in slow and medium speed corners and stabilizing the car in the fast bends. In his very first race, Spa 1991, he gained a lot of time at Blanchimont over de Cesaris left foot braking just a little bit to stabilize the car, when de Cesaris had snap oversteer in the middle of the corner because he was lifting the throttle. When the cars evolved, you can see also how he could use the technology in his benefit, altering the brake bias and differencial setups in almost every corner. His concentration and fitness, added to his imense ability made his racecraft unbeatable... In terms of pure speed, though, Hakkinen and Senna had the edge over him, in my opinion. Thanks for the great content! Cheers.
Avoiding the second pilot to win, due to team radio calls, also dirty agression whose ruined the sport forever because is the new normal, also avoiding the second pilot to have the same cars with newest tech advances, He was a cheater at Benetton nobody talk about this because the winners can write the history however they want www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-teammate-says-schumacher-cheated-in-1994/415378/
you can't compare a super talent driver with a cheater, yes schummacher won 7 times the tour, but among the driver he is well known as a cheater, just this make him incolarable with Senna, Simply the best...better than all the rest
You missed an important clip "When you spend so long sitting behind a driver in second place, you have lots of time to learn their driving style. Sometimes I drove aggressively like Senna, sometimes I drove smoothly like Alan, sometimes cleanly to conserve tyres. I could adapt my driving style to match my opponent, and use their special moves on the track. I was lucky to be able to learn from the best, from the greats, at the right time, and they give me those skills." - or words to that effect.
We all learn the most by mimicking others behavior, it makes sense. Alain was ridiculously smooth, almost conservative. Ayrton was, well let's be honest, a hot head that was crazy fast. If Michael understood both those styles and when to use them, that's damned impressive.
@@ralphlongo1975 as you mimicked other people just to be able to walk, to eat, to even speak a word. We see to learn. Problem is how well we can execute what we see
@@mark4lev exactly 3rd in the championship in 1992 only 1 point behind Patrese who was in that monster Williams and outscoring Senna aswell bare in mind that was his first full season in F1 and out of the top 4 teams Benetton was the only team to use h pattern for the whole season. Imagine if he finished second that would be crazy...
Schumacher was a student of driving. He clearly understood the dynamics of what his car was doing, how and why it was doing it. A master of driving technique and style. Simply one of, if not the greatest F1 driver ever.
he didnt really dominate. He only started to win a lot in the begining of 00 when Ferrari had the only one car able to win races and Rubens Barrichelo was told to stay behind and shut up
@@m.jsouza2782 Hahahaha :))))) Really? All races before Austria 2002 could be said to have taken place in the 'team orders' Era. In that era, Schumacher won 57 races. Out of those wins, 21 of them were with Barrichello as partner, and 16 with Irvine, for a total of 37 at Ferrari, where I presume you mean the 'team orders' Era. Let's be honest here. In the 4 seasons that Irvine partnered Michael, he admitted that MSC was too quick for him. He was a contracted number two, but he had also made peace with the fact that MSC was simply quicker than him. Now, in this era, the only times team orders were implemented were: 1. In Austria '98, when Michael was on a charge through the field (I.e. not for the win) and needed to make up time; 2. In France '99 where MSC was running 5th and struggling with mismatched tyres and gearbox issues, Irvine 6th was told not to pass. Again not for the win. 3. In Malaysia '99, for MSC to give the race win to Irvine for the championship battle with Mika. As for Rubens, the only confirmed team orders scenarios were: 4. Austria 2001 (for 2nd) 5. Austria 2002 (for the win). 5 confirmed team orders. In 2000 Barrichello was never on similar pace as Schumacher. There was no scope for team orders to play a role in the race win. In 2001 it was closer between the two, but Michael won 11 races, and Rubens was nowhere close enough to think that any major statistics of Michael's career would have changed with a different team policy. After the team order ban post Austria '02, Schumacher won a further 7 races that year, 6 in the next, 13 in 2004 and 1 in 2005, with an additional 7 with Felipe as his team mate. That's still 34 wins. Add this to the 19 he won at Benetton 'untarnished' by team orders, and you still have 53 'non team order era' wins. More than Prost's total.
I've heard something like this years ago about Schumacher's driving technique - he was like a human ABS/TCS/ESC system. His multitudes of micro-inputs of braking, throttle and steering were what made him such a great driver.
I think this is what makes all professional drivers better drivers than ordinary people, they're just more skilled doing those calculations while they're driving, like ten fold better than other people.
First time I saw Schumi was at Silverstone in first practice (can't remember what year - I do remember the Prost team being there and the noise their cars made was different). I stood at the very first kink at Maggot's. There was a gape in between the advertising boards there. All other cars going past had started braking by the time they passed that and they were glowing bright red. Schumi was the only one going past without any redness showing, he was INCREDIBLY late on the brakes and it was almost frightening to watch him lunge into a corner and somehow make it round. Quite how he managed it I'll never know but it broke my brain at the time.
Using maximum inertia to slingshot out of the corner, pointing at the apex, gently shifting the weight to the rear side, once he would hit the apex, he would input a lot more steering and driving on the front wheels (Alonso kind of does that too, but still a different style), the progressive throttle input would re-plant the back end gently, and that's when the slingshooting kicked him out of the corner perfectly planted and not losing grip. Most other drivers trying that would result in boiling the front tyres, and possibly losing the back end (guaranteed in the wet, only Senna could match this sort of thing). I remember watching Schumi on board cams, and hitting every apex lap after lap after lap, not even breaking a sweat. Even when everyone thought he was flat out, he still had even more in stock to pressure anyone who would dare coming close. Him and Senna are the two guys in F1 that I regard as human ABS/ESP/TSC masters of feeling the car down to a scale of milliseconds.
another lesser known fact about his driving style: during his earlier Benetton years, he used to have three speedometers installed on his dashboard, which displayed the minimum, maximum and current speed in corners, so he could always check if he was improving or going slower during an entire race, boosting his consistency. this also gave way to all sorts of experiments with different approaches to the racing line, carrying more or less speed on the straights depending on the circumstances. it then lead to his ultimate perception of the limit, as explained in the video
@@darylbeecham381 Willem Toet worked at Benetton when Schumacher was there: www.linkedin.com/pulse/driving-formula-1-michael-schumacher-some-background-willem-toet?trk=portfolio_article-card_title
This was one of the best analysis of my all time favorite driver. The thing I loved about Schumacher was that he was "consistently" on the edge, getting the maximum performance out of any car, every corner every lap. This is why he really had a huge relationship with whoever was providing him tires. He knew he was always making tiny micro adjustments - feeling for the "edge" on every lap, every turn. It was amazing seeing him drive inferior cars for wins. Spain and Ferrari his first year if I recall was stunning. I could be wrong though but he pulled out wins nobody else could have with the same car.
However, the analysis of the steering input is not fully correct/complete. The zig-zag that Schumacher does with his steering is the driving style of rally drivers. The purpose is to constantly feel the grip that car is carrying that is essential in rally driving, as you cannot trust the "track" conditions, as the grip is different in every corner. The idea is to add just tiny bit of change in the balance to the car to see how it reacts. If you are over the grip, the car won't react and won't give the feedback expected. That means you must modulate the throttle (or sometimes brake) to regain a bit of the grip to proceed as fast as possible - or if you have strong feedback, you can even add a bit of throttle. This is visible in the throttle curve of Schumacher - one can observe how he always makes a bigger change in the throttle right after the zig-zag. On track driving, it is "useless" technique, because usually you know quite well the grip already. But once you are at the absolute limit, it can make a big difference on track. There are two other world champions who were masters of this technique: Mika Häkkinen and Kimi Räikkönen. Both were quite notable opponents for Schumi. Today, I think Max Verstappen is really good at this, and that's why he is so fast on wet track.
Here's a great example of Kalle Rovanperä on asphalt. Notice how he uses the steering exactly like Schumacher for his advance to feel the grip - and also how Kalle does not do that when the corner is obvious full throttle one: th-cam.com/video/5aewugU5iuM/w-d-xo.html
I remember once, Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen were walking about after a race checking out the other's car. One of the commentators remarked that the difference between the two was that Michael knew what he was looking at and Mika didn't
When asked about his driving style during an interview years ago, Schumacher explained how the car spoke to him when he was driving at the "limit" and that was how he was able to do the things he did. The interviewer then asked how that differed when driving in the rain. Mike said the car still spoke to him in the wet , but it only whispered.
Great video! I also recommend listening to the John Barnard episode of F1's Beyond the Grid podcast - he has some great insight into Schumacher's driving style. Basically, Schumacher would take a car that naturally had great front-end and turn-in, and then use his talent to keep the back end in order. That lines up well with what's in this video. Prost was the opposite - he liked a car with a very planted rear end, so the rear would naturally stay in line while Prost used his talent to create better turn-in than anybody else could manage in that car. Barnard actually preferred Prost's style, since Barnard always focused on creating a very stable rear end for his cars. Schumacher was also known for liking very stiff suspension setups. That made the car more difficult to drive - very knife-edge handling - but also faster if you could balance it on that edge. It also made the car more sensitive, which likely added to Schumacher's feel for what the car was doing. Put that together with his preference for a free rear end, and you had a car that was phenomenally difficult to drive, but ultimately faster if you had somebody with the talent to manage it. That explains why so few of Schumacher's teammates were able to come close to his pace, especially in the mid-90s Benettons that were notoriously difficult to drive. The other aspect of Schumacher's genius is that he could drive those knife-edge cars on the very limit for every corner of every lap without using his full mental capacity. He could keep track of everything else that was going on in a race while tearing around faster than anybody else. There's a great story about the 1994 Hungarian GP. In one of the most demanding cars on one of the most demanding tracks in F1, Schumacher was leading late when he suddenly called the team on the radio to ask about his teammate Verstappen's strategy. He then suggested a new strategy for Verstappen and helped the team implement it to get Verstappen on the podium, all while continuing to dominate the race. It was like he didn't even have to think about driving faster than everybody else. That's a big reason why he and Brawn made such a potent strategic combo.
I disagree with your comment "Schumacher was also known for liking very stiff suspension setups. That made the car more difficult to drive - very knife-edge handling" . All F1 drivers, make their cars as easy for them to drive as possible, so yes they have to worry less about keeping the car on the road, even when approaching 10/10ths driving, and more time on the actual race, and changing race strategy's. I am convinced Michael set all his F1 cars up for tremendous front end bight, as most F1 drivers try to do. Lewis Hamilton today for instance.
That's a great story, never heard it before. I do recall the story of hungary 98' though. Ross Brawn: “Michael, you have 19 laps to pull out 25 seconds. We need 19 qualifying laps from you.” Michael: “Ok. Thank you.”
@@Mexxx65 You are free to disagree, but your comment is erroneously wrong. You really can't just setup the cars to be "easiest to drive" when you have so many different racing styles and each pilot differs tremendously. That's just not how it works. You have to engineer the car to match the driver.
I think you kind of mentioned the reason I think schumi changed F1. He came in as a super fit, super focused driver that wasn’t had before. He was fit enough to run every lap at the limit and in control. Before him we often saw drivers back off during a race as their fitness waived.
I was gonna post the same thing, but wanted to see if anyone else remembered Michaels fanaticism towards fitness. He pretty much set the course for todays drivers as far as off-season training and diet. The reason he could remain so consistant lap after lap is he just did not fatigue. This was manifest in his ability set perfectly timed laps. If the team need five tenths off the next lap, Michael would deliver with uncanny precision. His wealth of talent matched with those Ferraris was beautiful to behold.
@@FaithlessEmoRacing Nothign do with Schumi. Basicly every sport this has become the norm. All sports evolve and the skilllevel gets higher and higher in every sport.
Before Schumacher, Senna was very focused on fitness too. In this sense, I believe Senna was more of a trailblazer. He got shocked with how exhausted he was after his first F1 finish and worked hard on it since then. But Schumacher on his prime was also known for having excellent fitness - Luciano Burti, who was Ferrari test driver and now is the commentator of F1 in Brazil, said once how impressive was to hear Schumacher's voice during a race and how it kept unchanged because of his incredible fitness and this was an important factor on Schumacher's consistency.
“And Michael Schumacher is 37 seconds ahead, so he can refuel the car, change all four wheels, take off his helmet, have a smoke and a cup of tea, and rejoin in first.” - Murray Walker Superb video mate!
My first experience of seeing Schumacher live attending a race was at Silverstone in 2005, when that particular Ferrari wasn't a front running car. I watched this red car turn in, in Friday practice on a surface that was 'green' and everyone was building up speed and at turn one, (a mighty corner) this red car at the absolute limit on a near flat out corner lost the rear end and the crowd went crazy, because the car was out of control mid corner and within milliseconds was corrected all the way through with reactions incomprehensible. I was absolutely stunned. You just knew that it was something superhuman. I couldn't get over what I just saw.
Schu comes from a modest family background, but he and his brother literally grew up on a cart track. Their father was the guy who had the rental cart business at the track. When they were kids they used to grab the old tyres out of the trash bin which the richer kids had thrown away. I guess that’s when he learned how to get the best lap times out of his material. Basically all those years until Schu got hired by the Mercedes Junior Team at 18y/o he had lesser resources while being more sucessful than the competion. It were those years of constant struggle against hardships and the need to be more sucessful with lesser resources that formed Schu into that brilliant driver and athlete.
I remember when I was a big fan of Schumacher when I was a kid, my dad would bring me toy F1 cars and I would pretend Schumacher was driving it, watched F1 on TV all the time. It's been almost 15 years already.
I remember watching Schum's car during races and it seemed to be sliding sideways into each corner. Like the tail of the car was turning with the front wheels. So you're explanation of how he did that makes a lot of sense.
@voice of reason I don't think high rear bias would work. He was micro drifting each corner. Its like balancing a stick on your hand. He was going just a little bit too fast to cause the back of the car to step out.
I recently rewatched the the Belgium Grand Prix from 1995 where Schumacher started from 16, stayed on Slicks during the first rain and won at the end. I was seven years old when that race actually happened and of course didn't know what went on just was happy that the fellow German guy my father was a fan of won. But watching it back now I realised how great of a performance I have witnessed. He was an amazingly talented driver and then in the early 2000s Ferrari managed to give him a beast of a car on a regular basis. And it became one hell of a pairing.
For me, Schumacher's driving style at Ferrari in the 2000s was his style absolutely refined and perfected. If you watch the onboards and focus on the nose of the car, keeping the steering wheel below and track above, in your periphery, you get a real idea about the attitude of the car through a corner. He braked hard into corners, shifted the weight to the front axel, and then began rotating the car. I've no idea about the specifics of the setup of the car, but from that initial turn-in, he managed to energise the rear, making the front end the major pivot point, modulating throttle and steering input for best rotation. Around mid-corner, he'd unwind the lock on the steering wheel (much earlier than other drivers), often ending up with it straight early after the apex, yet the car would still be rotating - getting the perfect slip angle allowing him to then apply throttle earlier. It was an absolute art form. The fact he managed to do this (relatively) flawlessly lap after lap after lap (often being asked by the pit wall to put in 10-15 qualifying laps in the race to make the strategy work) demonstrated his absolute mastery on the track.
Watching Shumacher in the Benetton days you got the feeling of what this video has explained without fully analysing it or understanding why. It was just exciting to watch and you could just tell it was special not anywhere near the ordinary.
Michael Schumacher was and is my idol. I loved how he could win with a car that was much slower and took the car he had to its maxiumum. I loved the 90's and his last race with ferrari when he droppep to the back and made an unbeliveable drive back to the fronrunners, he showed everyone the magical driveing of his whole career. Just imagine if he would have continued 2 or 3 years moore with mercedes, he would be a 8 or 9 time world champion, he is the best to ever do it.
Schumacher biggest asset is actually his development driving skills. He is said to speak the Mechanic language. If you walk around the paddock and ask who is the best driver is the answer might vary but, if you ask who is the best development driver is its always going to be Schumacher
It's difficult to compare a regular car you can buy at a car dealer with a Formula One car but I think that Michael Schumacher had a big advantage when it came to development because of his education. After he finished school Michael Schumacher enjoyed an apprenticeship as a car mechanic from 1986 to 1989 which he finished successfully with his apprenticeship exam. So when he came into Formula 1 Michael Schumacher was a trained car mechanic who knew very well about the functionality of cars in general.
Absolutely, thats the definitive difference between Schumacher and everybody else. Senna was quite fanatic about tuning the car as well, but yet he didnt quite have the same ability as Schumacher to create as much productivity and ultimately churn out the numbers. Other drivers could help a team, some could improve a team, a few could even improve a team dramatically, but only Schumacher could make a team. And yet he goes off into the wilderness to ski around huge boulders...
Actually no, I thought it was the opposite? Rubens was the one known for knowing how to setup the car, and Schumacher relied a lot on his input for setups. However what Schumacher was good at, was feedback on what the car was doing at any corner on any lap.
People who say silly things like “it’s ALL down to the car in F1” need to watch this. Sure if you put the best driver in the best car he will dominate (Hamilton : Mercedes), but if you put the best driver in a slower car he will destroy his team mate and finish several places higher than the car deserves by the end of the season, (Alonso : Ferrari). 😎Wishing Michael the best possible recovery 🙏🏼
The Ferraris were the superior cars though. That said, put a killer driver in the superior car and you cannot lose. Schumacher also had killer strategy to a point of not hesitating to being nasty (IE Monaco qualifying 2004 or 2005 I think, where he pretended to miss the last turn [LOL] and blocked everyone behind him and thus they could not finish their qualifying laps). The dude knew the rule book inside out, and he used every string on his bow. Back in the day he also had the better tyres, that was demonstrated with the Indianapolis fiasco in 2005. I remember Schumi going for power laps in ultra soft tyres, and pitting quite a bit more. He would do 10 laps with massive, much faster times at 5 to 8 seconds faster per lap, and that would enable him to pit more often.
@@Manu-Official Can’t argue with any of that Manu, he was absolutely focused and ruthless….. He certainly blew the Jordan team away when he first drove F1 with his talent and “spare mental capacity” He would have been a formidable Luftwaffe pilot in WWII for sure !
@@Manu-Official The Ferraris definitely were not the superior cars though lmao They had huge problems by the time Michael joined and even as he and the team whipped the car into condition, they still weren't indisputably the best car on the track, especially not against Mclaren. Plenty of the cars matched or were even better than the Ferrari. That's what makes pilots like Senna and Schumacher so phenomenal, they outpaced rivals in cars that weren't the best or were only just as good as the competing cars.
The only team mate hamilton ever destroyed was the useless guy at mclaren whos name escapes me. I mean even Bottas outqualifies him in like 1/3rd of races...
I used to watch F1 just for Schumacher, as many others did, and just like them, I didn't consciously understood what set him apart but now I do, thank you.
When you apply this logic, it makes sense why some of Schumacher's best moments for Mercedes were in the wet, Canada 2011 where he was up there with the Red Bulls and McLarens. Or if look at British GP 2012 qualifying, Alonso and Webber had 2 runs on the intermediate where as Mercedes only sent Michael for one because they made a mistake and sent him on the full wets, meaning he only had 1 lap in the last 3 mins to get a time in and he only ended only 2 tenths off pole in the car that was a second or more off the pace in the race the day after, had he gone for 2 runs like the others, I'm sure he would have been on pole. German GP the race after he qualified 4th in the rain too. The problem with Michael's comeback is his ability to maximise a car that doesn't suit his style had diminished, and this stood out even more because the Mercedes was generally 0.5-1.0 sec slower than the front teams. In the rain, as it always does, neutralized the field and this inherent problem was covered up, allowing him to for the top positions. They worked the Mercedes better to suit Michael's style in 2012 hence he was generally a match for Nico or faster, but that generation of F1 was never going to suit him, so for him to be so competitve in 2012 at his age of 43 speaks volumes to who the real GOAT is. A lot of people keep saying Nico thrased Michael in 3 seasons, he never, Michael's car failured a good 10 times between 2011 and 2012 whilst he was ahead of Nico in the races.
Also, the tires back then were notorious for being very soft and wearing out really quickly, so is style of always microdrifting the car to rotate it would have caused more stress on the tires which probably also hurt him more than other drivers
When Schumacher returned testing bans were introduced and major focus was was on simulators as F1 was trying to cut costs in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. This deprived him of getting a feel for the car and this showed up in qualifying even though his race pace was better than Rosberg's. He wasn't able to get the most from the car. Has Schumacher returned just one or two years before, he might have been able to develop a feel for the new engines. Don't forget, even with things like DRS it was virtually impossible to overtake Schumacher as we saw at Monza when he was instructed to allow Hamilton to overtake after several failed attempts.
@@V12F1Demon I am a Schumacher fan and prefer him over HAM, but we should be realistic here. The reason HAM could not overtake MSC in Monza was wrong gear Ratios
@@pokkaizemma2326 HAM had the benefit of DRS which neutralized that effect. Infact, the McLaren had better cornering speed which allowed HAM to brake later than MSC and this is where he would get up to MSC on the exit. Despite the faster, better balanced, late-breaking ability of the McLaren he was unable to get past bec MSC positioned the car expertly going into and out of turns. Ironically, HAM did the same thing to ROS in 2015 and 16 at Hungary or Austria, I forget.
@@pokkaizemma2326 This is true but I don't think any other driver would have had the smarts or defended that aggresively against Hamilton and hence kept the position for so long, you could argue Michael deserved a penalty for pushing Lewis on to the grass but I think Lewis learnt a lot about hard racing that race and a few years later he started pushing Rosberg off the road in the same fashion. Michael was the star of that race purely because he went from 8th on the grid to 3rd, attacked Alonso for 2nd then eventually the pace of the car made him fall back to 5th.
Bergers theory: How Schumacher bypassed the problem At that time Berger had an idea how Schumacher managed to reach the absolute limit with the car suddenly breaking loose on bumps. And with a proactive driving style. "Schumacher's sensor technology was totally geared to that, because the car had built it that way from the start, and he could handle it - he probably instinctively counter-steered it before," Berger says in a discussion with Motorsport-Total.com. "It was so hard for me to understand that the last five-tenths of a second are so difficult." That was also the moment in which he realized what an exceptional artist his then intimate enemy Schumacher was, which he also dismantled his last doubts: "Who had this car so confidently in the border area under control, had to be absolute extra class." translate.google.si/translate?hl=sl&sl=de&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.motorsport-total.com%2Fformel-1%2Fnews%2Fwarum-benetton-nach-schumacher-das-siegen-verlernte-16121302&fbclid=IwAR1abneSUy6PAo-lLkvSjhZxk8fgvnG1AZ4upV12H5zhzQIY3cZdY2RPxm0
That all combined with a on track attitude, that didn´t accept compromises made him sooo good. Some might call it "ruthless" or "ugly" what he did at times but this was another aspect that made him an ultimate winner. About that particular aspect (not about the driving technique) he was quite like Senna. The Brazilian also had a "either you break or we crash, I won`t change the line" attitude.
One of my favorite driver, he was squeezing as much as he could from any car and was passionate about it same like my other favorite Senna, with a different driving style, but sharing the same passion. And I think that all about racing. THE PASSION.
He was my fav, I grew up watching him after Senna was tragically taken away from this world Schumi took the mantle up and provided us with Magic, what a talent who worked extremely hard to keep at the front and always performed regardless what motor he had.
Schumacher is probably the only driver who looked the same when was winning cart championships in 1987 at the age of 18 to when he finally retired at the age 43 in 2012.
I've never said this about a channel but I love this one. Dude has a ridiculous amount of not only knowledge (anyone can get that) but understanding. This was a very nerdy video but still couldn't turn it off. Keep them coming!
Great video Scott, big thank you ... I describe Michael as the most complete driver to ever drive an F1 car, unfortunately he often doesn’t the credit he deserves from fans whom focus on the controversy’s. But those whom really understand F1, understand what an incredible talent he was and why his style, both in and out of the car, is the yardstick in which young drivers today are measured against. Keep Fighting Michael.
I drove 2 GoKart races with(against) him in my youth, the gokart scene in this time in germany was pretty hard and competetive. he dominated alone with this technique so hard, difference in gokart is that you do most of this with your bodyweight and movement and he was well known for that :-). his cars got way more heavier so he had to adapt to this(his?) technique you showed here. nicely video :)
Schumacher nailed it in his own words. His ability to perceive and react to feedback is/was insane. Most drivers couldn't even bare to drive his car. He thrived on feedback, as all drivers of F1 caliber do... but he took it took extremes. Most drivers would literally be frazzled after just a few laps trying to wrestle the feedback he preferred in his steering and suspension preferences.
This is for the people, who said Schumchar was a mid-tier driver, cheater..... I mean he was something else, people need to respect legends and it doesn't matter if it is Lewis, Ayrton, Micheal or Fangio. All of them from different eras, all exceptional.
Ive never heard anyone say he's a mid level driver lmao, cheater yes but mid tier nope. He did all kinds of shit that any other driver wouldn't be allowed to.
What brought me into following F1 is Schumacher himself, always reading the headlines with his name and articles speak of him in great praising sense, it made want to know why is he so good!!! then I became so attached to watching him every weekend, the amount of dedication he has and consistency in his performance is beyond anything i have ever scene in any discipline in life and not only sport. he is phenomenally talented, and he is dearly missed as well... wish him the Legend well and recovery.
I remember in the early 2000’s when Michael came out for one lap qualifying and was like a second and a half faster at Melbourne. All the teams looking at their monitors like “fuck...”
Briatore was right about Schumacher...he fought through so many eras and adversaries... Villeneuve,Hill,Prost,Mansell,Senna, Coulthard,Hakkinnen, Raikkonnen, JPM and ultimately Alonso...he had top class competitiveness from his rivals throughout his career.
The first driver to truly dominate F1 as a hole in a way we’ve never seen before. Yes there have been moments where his morality of racing has come into question. But you can not deny the impact this guy had on the sport as a whole and the records he wrote.
I remember some journalist got to sit in a car driven by Schumacher , it was a demo run with their new car , I forgot who it was or what car it was but I remember the journalist write that it was scary how precise Schumacher was, there were markers to show where the perfect line was for drivers who were there to test the car. Schumacher hit everyone perfectly on both laps way faster than the guy thought was safe. On the second lap Schumacher said it was a fun lap and drifted the car a little, but once again hitting every marker perfectly.
I've seen/read elsewhere that a lot of Schumacher's speed came from his tremendous feel in the pedals, and that he would balance the car and steer it slightly by slightly overlapping the brake and accelerator, and generally having perfect footwork. Do you think this is the case Scott?
@@georgeyacoub6719 08 yes, 07 doubt it.. McLaren was miles ahead.. the only reason Kimi won was because Alonso and Lewis ego plus the idiotness of Ron autodestroyed their title hopes
@@j3d89 Umm no, the only reason Alonso and Hamilton came close to Kimi wad because he had more mechanical issues and DNF's. He would hav EASILY had 3 or 4 more wins if his car wasn't so unreliable. He was *100%* the better driver then both of them in 2007 and the only reason they came close to him was because Kimi had shit luck and Mclaren had great cars
Once I heard that Shumacher was so great, that he spoke calmly during racing, like he was cornering flat out a corner while thinking what he was going to eat for dinner on his private jet.
because he was driving on autopilot basically. his throttle input, braking and steering is automatic. he doesn't think about it. when you're racing for a couple of laps, you won't be even thinking that you're racing
It’s refreshing to hear clear, concise, and expert driving skills explained in this kind of format. I’ve been a professional driving instructor for military and law enforcement since 2009 and current stunt coordinator for over 30 years. I will pass your channel onto all my future students. The 100% adhesion rule is explained far better in this brief video than I’ve ever heard. Best to you and all your future endeavors.
Hamilton will never be remembered the same as Schumacher. Even if he surpasses Micheals records. Because pretty much everyone knows Hamilton never really had to fight for his championships with Mercedes dominance
@@felixone7506 in 2008 mclaren was a head runner for the championship and that year could have resulted in anything, especially from what happened in brazil. by 2009, everything changed ib f1 from my eyes. it was one team dominating and bullying all other teams, and the first car was light years ahead of the rest. no wonder hamilton left for mercedes, its not that he couldnt compete with vettel, his mclaren was too slow to compete. red bull was unbeatable in all ways possible, it made vettel a 4x champion, just as mercedes made nico rosberg and hamilton unworthy champions. the second best car was light years behind, the margin mercedes won was so big, they had a 1 2 finish in the championship for 4 years with no sweat. lewis is a great driver, its all luck he won 6 championships. and along with alonso choosing to race for mclaren instead of any other team, kimi not bothering for anything, vettel becoming a cry baby and rosberg acting like a 12 year old kid, it was no coincidence lewis won so much.
I guess MSC's Ferrari didn't win 6 straight constructors championships. Nope, that never happened....You armchair experts will want to believe whatever makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside.
@@thelarry383 ohright mr prost. schumi faced hakkinen coulthard barrichello alonso montoya and ralf as his main opponenta yet he still came on top even when his ferrari was never the fastest car and neither the most powerful yet reliable. its not ferrari who dominated, it was schumi who dominated.
@@emiliospowerballer1441 Hamilton beat Alosno in his rookie year and only lost the championship because of a bad pitstop call. Also MSC always had no1 status at Ferrari and they had a dominant car for many of his championships. MSC also cheated his way to the championship against Hill.
Schumacher did all this before they had real time telemetry and the teams weren't able to help as they do today. Data was exchanged only when cars ran past the pits. So, the drivers drove in silence most of the time having to figure out what the steering was telling them and the lights meant instead of being told by the race engineer. Schumacher was brilliant at this and also used his instinct for extracting the most from the tyres.
Shumy used the 4 wheel drift to set the chassis for fast exits like few drivers have. Often an instantaneous act that while almost impreceptible made his a championship style.
Schumacher used extreme oversteer to help the car turn, which made him really fast, especially in the mid-90s. This driving style, however, would also wear out the rear tires faster, which especially hurt him at the end of his career.
Please tell it like it is. Compared to his team mates and with his style, he usually could stay out a tad longer than the others. IF tyre wear ever was a weakness, he worked a way around it with his feel, AND car setup. His style was made a bit more for sprint racing, but it never degraded his tyres that he'd run into massive troubles, at least not before his team mates. Even in 2011 he stayed in the paddock til 5am to work out the car and its flaws.
@@Jejking He was struggling a lot in 2011 and 2012 with rear tire degradation, which at that time was a Mercedes weakness as well. During the Bridgestone era tire wear was less of an issue, even though he struggled to get the maximum out of the tires in 2005.
@@schumiisking He literally pulled that oversteer and it hurting him later lmao. If shumi set up his cars with extreme oversteer then we would have heard someone mention it through all the years he raced and all the documentaries and videos on shumi. When he was on Mercedes they sucked, people tend to forget that Mercedes wasn't instantly successful when they returned to F1. Shit, most people don't even know Mercedes was in F1 and successful before Ferrari and they left the sport in the 30s because of a crazy crash that a Merc flew into the crowd killing 80 people and then Ferrari finally could win lmao.
I heard a story where Alesi was looking at MS's telemetry and noticed how fast he was entering a corner. He then tried the same thing and destroyed the car and hurt himself. To be able to do that time after time is what made him remarkable.
Berger and Herbert used Michaels Setup and said the car was undriveable for them They wanted to know if his setup was making the difference. Then they knew it was Michaels skills to drive that beast at the limit with this Setup.
Around 2005 when i was 5 years old, my father buy me this yellow bed sheet and there was this big red majestic car with "Malboro" written on its huge rear wing and the number 1 on its front, there's also this black horse symbol on a bright yellow shield on its side. I once asked my father, who the driver was, He answered, "That's Schumacher, the Champion who keeps on winning his battles". Then i watched F1 for the first time, never in my life i've seen such an incredible race. The beautiful cars, the intense straight line battle, the crazy cornering speed.. It was simply fantastic! I can still feels the fire from my childhood everytime i watch it now but the fire is even bigger and brighter when i watch schumacher's footage from his days. That's how i ended up loving F1. I dont know where can i find my bedsheet now though, We most likely didnt bring it with us when we moved out of the city.
Nice video, well explained 👍! To all those who keep saying he didn't deserve his championships, well, good luck with that. His driving style and technique were unique, and I have always loved seeing him race the best drivers from his time, so to me he still stands on p1, along with Senna and Prost. Keep those videos coming!
Love these videos Scott! Would be absolutely awesome if you could continue this series and add Hakkinen, Raikkonen, Alonso, Vettel and Hamilton too. Thanks for making the quarantine just that bit more bearable!
Mubarak Ahmad It seems like he was similar to Schumacher in a way, always sliding his car into corners to get a better exit, but just taken to an extremely aggressive level
@@CheesyHotDogPuff Every great Driver has done that, if you were to look how a car reacts being pushed to the limit it slides but in a very suddle way. Even incredibly smooth drivers like Alain Prost did that if you were to look at his onboard like Estroil 1990 you could see the car slided a bit on most corners, every great Driver had just a different technique in achieving that hence why some Drivers slided the Car more than others but Gilles style is certainly very different because it defies all Physical limitations of a Driver reacting to a slide & the Car being able to carry the slide so perfectly. As Jackie Stewart once said about him: His Car control was EXTRAORDINARY, he could push a Grand Prix car to its ultimate limit. And yes I do agree with you. :)
Excellent analysis. Schumacher made so many tiny corrections mid corners to make time by getting the car straightened for exit whilst most drivers just braked late into corners and figured it out from there. I used to try this in road cars on the swiss mountain roads through the tunnels. On exit when everyone is braking, you change down and gas and you get this incredible grip and speed. (Don't try this at home. Obviously.) For Schumacher it was all day, every day. Every corner, every lap. If I am not mistaken, he invented the hot in- lap.
Sensibility is the key. Schumy was a "gently beast" driver. No one can match his sensibility for the limit. He could feel the speed and car equilibrium better than anyone else.
Great video, some really good insight. Schumacher was amazingly fit and in an actual race was there ever anyone better? Yes, others like Senna were better qualifiers but over a tough race distance MSc really hard to beat
What can you say about this video other than "well done,sir"?! A worthy sub, my friend! Flawlessly put together all the information to let us know exactlly what happened, how it happened and what it achieved. Schumi was really one of a kind, real genius!
I read somewhere, that Schumi had a special ability. While other drivers worked corners/turns with all body and mind, Schumi could let his body work on a current corner/turn, while his eyes and brain looked for and prepared already for the next corner/turn.
It makes me laugh when people say Schumacher had illegal software 94, his team mates only scored 11 points all season 94 Michael scored 92 and was disqualified from 4 races 94,95 all his benneton team mates only scored 56 altogether. 96 Schumacher goes to Ferrari drives f310 This was one season before Ross brawn came along. But even his one year at Ferrari he instantly beat benneton, so did Ferrari have illegal electronics as-well all you Schumacher hater's ?? It's obvious benneton had special software alright" it's name was "Michael Schumacher"
The fact that Schumi was fighting for the champion with Jacques in 97 and Mika in 98 and 99 shows how good he is. Ferrari's cars at that time were inferior.
Schumacher and lewis hamilton are not the greatest of all time We will never know who the best is . To find out who the greatest of all time is you would have to give all of them the same car and let them race each other. In formula 1 the cars do the majority of the work. th-cam.com/video/sMvgRy0GeRQ/w-d-xo.html
Schumacher's style is distilled in one word, ruthless!....He was very interested in the science of the sport and when at Ferrari the car hardly ever broke, gifting him 1 or 2 championships....I hope we see him hale and hearty in public soon.....
Actually anything is possible .... don’t discount that it could happen. I used to use his style on the highways of NZ when I was in a hurry. Once learned it’s all transferable
Every time I watch this video I realize that Schumacher drives the car like it’s a motorcycle. He wears it like a glove. He feels the essence of its behavior. Legendary
This Language of "Feel" is the essence of Motorcycle Racing. The motorcycle rider has many more inputs that determine performance & lap time. This is why the skill of the Rider has so much more to do with the overall lap time than the driver of a car does. Essentially the fastest car with an average driver has a much better chance of winning than an average rider on the fastest motorcycle.
I love this series of videos, very fascinating. I'd love to see the current driver's with proper cars, pushing to the limit every lap, a lot are very fast but I reckon a lot won't be able to carry their speed all the time without mistakes.
I think it was at Nico Roserbgs podcast where he said Schuhmacher would drive above the curbs in the training session so his floor could be lower to the ground the just get a little less drag. That is actually so mindblowing to even think about that.
For me Schumacher is the greatest of all time. I actually loved when he was at Benetton. In them days he was the upstart who was causing so much head scratching among the other teams. The man is a hero. Has Hamilton or any other drivers got races that can compare to Schumacher's 1996 Spanish GP or the 1998 Hungarian Grand Prix? They're the races of a true legend. He always spoke the truth as well, not like some of the nonsense you could hear coming out of certain drivers like Montoya and Villeneuve. Complete pair of plebs.
Fangio may be quick but the rest of the field were just mechanics or rich people. It wasn't made of the best of the best drivers till the early 60s. I'm not saying Fangio was bad but it's difficult to see just how fast he was.
What do you think about Schumacher and his driving style?
➤ Subscribe: goo.gl/AbD2f9
Stupidly aggressive
He managed to put more people in the wall than any other world champion, Bridgestone and Pirelli also made custom tyres specifically for him.
Another great video and analysis! Just adding something to how he managed to carry more speed than others, specially in the 90's: I believe he was the first F1 driver to explore the left foot braking, trail braking in slow and medium speed corners and stabilizing the car in the fast bends. In his very first race, Spa 1991, he gained a lot of time at Blanchimont over de Cesaris left foot braking just a little bit to stabilize the car, when de Cesaris had snap oversteer in the middle of the corner because he was lifting the throttle. When the cars evolved, you can see also how he could use the technology in his benefit, altering the brake bias and differencial setups in almost every corner. His concentration and fitness, added to his imense ability made his racecraft unbeatable... In terms of pure speed, though, Hakkinen and Senna had the edge over him, in my opinion. Thanks for the great content! Cheers.
Can you do the driving styles Form hamilton verstappen and leclerc?
Avoiding the second pilot to win, due to team radio calls, also dirty agression whose ruined the sport forever because is the new normal, also avoiding the second pilot to have the same cars with newest tech advances,
He was a cheater at Benetton
nobody talk about this because the winners can write the history however they want
www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-teammate-says-schumacher-cheated-in-1994/415378/
Finally someone who doesn't just compare Senna and Schumacher, just gives their remunerates. Thank you.
Cheers for the feedback.
Yep!
Kimi we miss u please come back to Scuderia !
Jari Matti Latvala - Helsinki
True that. There is no greatest of all time in a sport that evolves every year.
you can't compare a super talent driver with a cheater, yes schummacher won 7 times the tour, but among the driver he is well known as a cheater, just this make him incolarable with Senna, Simply the best...better than all the rest
You missed an important clip "When you spend so long sitting behind a driver in second place, you have lots of time to learn their driving style. Sometimes I drove aggressively like Senna, sometimes I drove smoothly like Alan, sometimes cleanly to conserve tyres. I could adapt my driving style to match my opponent, and use their special moves on the track. I was lucky to be able to learn from the best, from the greats, at the right time, and they give me those skills." - or words to that effect.
Interesting points there. Hmmmm
We all learn the most by mimicking others behavior, it makes sense. Alain was ridiculously smooth, almost conservative. Ayrton was, well let's be honest, a hot head that was crazy fast. If Michael understood both those styles and when to use them, that's damned impressive.
@@ralphlongo1975 as you mimicked other people just to be able to walk, to eat, to even speak a word. We see to learn. Problem is how well we can execute what we see
So basically ryosuke of F1? (Initial D reference)
@@car_rar That's what I was thinking lol
Remember, he'll forever remain as the last person to win a GP with an H pattern manual gearbox.
also as the man, who was hidden after a ski incident
unless they make that a rule again to improve entertainment
The worrying thing for his competitors is that he was faster than them with a three pedal set up ie right foot braking.
@@mark4lev exactly 3rd in the championship in 1992 only 1 point behind Patrese who was in that monster Williams and outscoring Senna aswell bare in mind that was his first full season in F1 and out of the top 4 teams Benetton was the only team to use h pattern for the whole season. Imagine if he finished second that would be crazy...
The B194 had paddle shift.
Schumacher was a student of driving. He clearly understood the dynamics of what his car was doing, how and why it was doing it. A master of driving technique and style. Simply one of, if not the greatest F1 driver ever.
He was still a cheat and a crap sportsman. Dirty Tricks Cabbage!
@@AdamTaylor-g5plol, you will never understand what Schumi was in F1
Dude was faster in the wet than other guys in the dry. He dominated his era and right up until he retired.
Well 2010 to 13 wasnt a big era for him
@@nsewarte He was 43, had a 3 year pause and a neck injury.
If formula 1 used equal cars then schumacher would have never dominated.
Having the best engineers and cars helps alot.
he didnt really dominate. He only started to win a lot in the begining of 00 when Ferrari had the only one car able to win races and Rubens Barrichelo was told to stay behind and shut up
@@m.jsouza2782 Hahahaha :))))) Really?
All races before Austria 2002 could be said to have taken place in the 'team orders' Era. In that era, Schumacher won 57 races. Out of those wins, 21 of them were with Barrichello as partner, and 16 with Irvine, for a total of 37 at Ferrari, where I presume you mean the 'team orders' Era.
Let's be honest here. In the 4 seasons that Irvine partnered Michael, he admitted that MSC was too quick for him. He was a contracted number two, but he had also made peace with the fact that MSC was simply quicker than him. Now, in this era, the only times team orders were implemented were:
1. In Austria '98, when Michael was on a charge through the field (I.e. not for the win) and needed to make up time;
2. In France '99 where MSC was running 5th and struggling with mismatched tyres and gearbox issues, Irvine 6th was told not to pass. Again not for the win.
3. In Malaysia '99, for MSC to give the race win to Irvine for the championship battle with Mika.
As for Rubens, the only confirmed team orders scenarios were:
4. Austria 2001 (for 2nd)
5. Austria 2002 (for the win).
5 confirmed team orders.
In 2000 Barrichello was never on similar pace as Schumacher. There was no scope for team orders to play a role in the race win. In 2001 it was closer between the two, but Michael won 11 races, and Rubens was nowhere close enough to think that any major statistics of Michael's career would have changed with a different team policy.
After the team order ban post Austria '02, Schumacher won a further 7 races that year, 6 in the next, 13 in 2004 and 1 in 2005, with an additional 7 with Felipe as his team mate. That's still 34 wins. Add this to the 19 he won at Benetton 'untarnished' by team orders, and you still have 53 'non team order era' wins. More than Prost's total.
I've heard something like this years ago about Schumacher's driving technique - he was like a human ABS/TCS/ESC system. His multitudes of micro-inputs of braking, throttle and steering were what made him such a great driver.
I think this is what makes all professional drivers better drivers than ordinary people, they're just more skilled doing those calculations while they're driving, like ten fold better than other people.
^^^This. He was a human ABS/TCS. Remember the monaco race in the rain? Holy crap he almost lost it a dozen times and still pulled out the win.
Great driver ????????
@@shirleycameron7718 Yes, if you know Formula 1 cars back then, he was certainly a genius.
@@stevenkenney9473 Schumacher used similar style to Valentino Rossi in the wet.
First time I saw Schumi was at Silverstone in first practice (can't remember what year - I do remember the Prost team being there and the noise their cars made was different). I stood at the very first kink at Maggot's. There was a gape in between the advertising boards there. All other cars going past had started braking by the time they passed that and they were glowing bright red. Schumi was the only one going past without any redness showing, he was INCREDIBLY late on the brakes and it was almost frightening to watch him lunge into a corner and somehow make it round.
Quite how he managed it I'll never know but it broke my brain at the time.
😮
Using maximum inertia to slingshot out of the corner, pointing at the apex, gently shifting the weight to the rear side, once he would hit the apex, he would input a lot more steering and driving on the front wheels (Alonso kind of does that too, but still a different style), the progressive throttle input would re-plant the back end gently, and that's when the slingshooting kicked him out of the corner perfectly planted and not losing grip. Most other drivers trying that would result in boiling the front tyres, and possibly losing the back end (guaranteed in the wet, only Senna could match this sort of thing).
I remember watching Schumi on board cams, and hitting every apex lap after lap after lap, not even breaking a sweat. Even when everyone thought he was flat out, he still had even more in stock to pressure anyone who would dare coming close. Him and Senna are the two guys in F1 that I regard as human ABS/ESP/TSC masters of feeling the car down to a scale of milliseconds.
@@Manu-Official aswell as Jim Clark, he really was one with any machine he stepped in.
He is the GOAT, dude.
another lesser known fact about his driving style: during his earlier Benetton years, he used to have three speedometers installed on his dashboard, which displayed the minimum, maximum and current speed in corners, so he could always check if he was improving or going slower during an entire race, boosting his consistency. this also gave way to all sorts of experiments with different approaches to the racing line, carrying more or less speed on the straights depending on the circumstances. it then lead to his ultimate perception of the limit, as explained in the video
That was in the era of F-1 computers. Three speedometers??!! Can you imagine being on the edge in speed looking at all the gauges? Wow!
Sadly they Cheated cuz his car had TCS and a bunch of Electronic Helps when it was "Illegal"
@@darylbeecham381 Willem Toet worked at Benetton when Schumacher was there: www.linkedin.com/pulse/driving-formula-1-michael-schumacher-some-background-willem-toet?trk=portfolio_article-card_title
@Firstname Lastname as could be seen at the brazilian gp he had traction control,contributing to Sennas death,he was trying to beat an ilegal car.
@@eoinmurphy210 oh boy,you expanded the limit of stupidity with that comment .
Michael Schumacher is one of the Motorsport greatest drivers and my childhood hero I wish him a good recovery from his skiing accident
This was one of the best analysis of my all time favorite driver. The thing I loved about Schumacher was that he was "consistently" on the edge, getting the maximum performance out of any car, every corner every lap. This is why he really had a huge relationship with whoever was providing him tires. He knew he was always making tiny micro adjustments - feeling for the "edge" on every lap, every turn. It was amazing seeing him drive inferior cars for wins. Spain and Ferrari his first year if I recall was stunning. I could be wrong though but he pulled out wins nobody else could have with the same car.
Wow the steering input comparison was cool to see, I haven’t seen traces shown and compared and explained so well.
Thanks, that data is great.
@Ben Freedman Racing. Well not since the first time around at least...th-cam.com/video/Uk2p2nRK-p4/w-d-xo.html
its from a very old video
However, the analysis of the steering input is not fully correct/complete. The zig-zag that Schumacher does with his steering is the driving style of rally drivers. The purpose is to constantly feel the grip that car is carrying that is essential in rally driving, as you cannot trust the "track" conditions, as the grip is different in every corner.
The idea is to add just tiny bit of change in the balance to the car to see how it reacts. If you are over the grip, the car won't react and won't give the feedback expected. That means you must modulate the throttle (or sometimes brake) to regain a bit of the grip to proceed as fast as possible - or if you have strong feedback, you can even add a bit of throttle. This is visible in the throttle curve of Schumacher - one can observe how he always makes a bigger change in the throttle right after the zig-zag.
On track driving, it is "useless" technique, because usually you know quite well the grip already. But once you are at the absolute limit, it can make a big difference on track.
There are two other world champions who were masters of this technique: Mika Häkkinen and Kimi Räikkönen. Both were quite notable opponents for Schumi. Today, I think Max Verstappen is really good at this, and that's why he is so fast on wet track.
Here's a great example of Kalle Rovanperä on asphalt. Notice how he uses the steering exactly like Schumacher for his advance to feel the grip - and also how Kalle does not do that when the corner is obvious full throttle one: th-cam.com/video/5aewugU5iuM/w-d-xo.html
Miss you Schumi. Keep fighting Michael.
Poor choice of words
How cruel...
@@cresbalundo8845 Poor choice of picking lewis
@@cresbalundo8845 ?
@@cresbalundo8845 Poor choice of being a salty fan
I remember once, Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen were walking about after a race checking out the other's car. One of the commentators remarked that the difference between the two was that Michael knew what he was looking at and Mika didn't
When asked about his driving style during an interview years ago, Schumacher explained how the car spoke to him when he was driving at the "limit" and that was how he was able to do the things he did. The interviewer then asked how that differed when driving in the rain. Mike said the car still spoke to him in the wet , but it only whispered.
Great video! I also recommend listening to the John Barnard episode of F1's Beyond the Grid podcast - he has some great insight into Schumacher's driving style. Basically, Schumacher would take a car that naturally had great front-end and turn-in, and then use his talent to keep the back end in order. That lines up well with what's in this video. Prost was the opposite - he liked a car with a very planted rear end, so the rear would naturally stay in line while Prost used his talent to create better turn-in than anybody else could manage in that car. Barnard actually preferred Prost's style, since Barnard always focused on creating a very stable rear end for his cars.
Schumacher was also known for liking very stiff suspension setups. That made the car more difficult to drive - very knife-edge handling - but also faster if you could balance it on that edge. It also made the car more sensitive, which likely added to Schumacher's feel for what the car was doing. Put that together with his preference for a free rear end, and you had a car that was phenomenally difficult to drive, but ultimately faster if you had somebody with the talent to manage it. That explains why so few of Schumacher's teammates were able to come close to his pace, especially in the mid-90s Benettons that were notoriously difficult to drive.
The other aspect of Schumacher's genius is that he could drive those knife-edge cars on the very limit for every corner of every lap without using his full mental capacity. He could keep track of everything else that was going on in a race while tearing around faster than anybody else. There's a great story about the 1994 Hungarian GP. In one of the most demanding cars on one of the most demanding tracks in F1, Schumacher was leading late when he suddenly called the team on the radio to ask about his teammate Verstappen's strategy. He then suggested a new strategy for Verstappen and helped the team implement it to get Verstappen on the podium, all while continuing to dominate the race. It was like he didn't even have to think about driving faster than everybody else. That's a big reason why he and Brawn made such a potent strategic combo.
I disagree with your comment "Schumacher was also known for liking very stiff suspension setups. That made the car more difficult to drive - very knife-edge handling" . All F1 drivers, make their cars as easy for them to drive as possible, so yes they have to worry less about keeping the car on the road, even when approaching 10/10ths driving, and more time on the actual race, and changing race strategy's. I am convinced Michael set all his F1 cars up for tremendous front end bight, as most F1 drivers try to do. Lewis Hamilton today for instance.
Lol all 4 time WDCs need a stable rear
That's a great story, never heard it before. I do recall the story of hungary 98' though.
Ross Brawn: “Michael, you have 19 laps to pull out 25 seconds. We need 19 qualifying laps from you.”
Michael: “Ok. Thank you.”
@@Mexxx65
Very true. Very-knife-edge handling is how he liked it.
@@Mexxx65 You are free to disagree, but your comment is erroneously wrong. You really can't just setup the cars to be "easiest to drive" when you have so many different racing styles and each pilot differs tremendously. That's just not how it works. You have to engineer the car to match the driver.
I think you kind of mentioned the reason I think schumi changed F1. He came in as a super fit, super focused driver that wasn’t had before.
He was fit enough to run every lap at the limit and in control. Before him we often saw drivers back off during a race as their fitness waived.
I was gonna post the same thing, but wanted to see if anyone else remembered Michaels fanaticism towards fitness. He pretty much set the course for todays drivers as far as off-season training and diet. The reason he could remain so consistant lap after lap is he just did not fatigue. This was manifest in his ability set perfectly timed laps. If the team need five tenths off the next lap, Michael would deliver with uncanny precision. His wealth of talent matched with those Ferraris was beautiful to behold.
Chris McLemore exactly. Modern day life style of F1 drivers of daily training and healthy diets owe a lot to schumi’s attitude.
#keepfightingmichael
@@FaithlessEmoRacing Nothign do with Schumi. Basicly every sport this has become the norm. All sports evolve and the skilllevel gets higher and higher in every sport.
@@Marc98338 And there is always a guy spearheading the movement. Borg, Schumi, ...
Before Schumacher, Senna was very focused on fitness too. In this sense, I believe Senna was more of a trailblazer. He got shocked with how exhausted he was after his first F1 finish and worked hard on it since then. But Schumacher on his prime was also known for having excellent fitness - Luciano Burti, who was Ferrari test driver and now is the commentator of F1 in Brazil, said once how impressive was to hear Schumacher's voice during a race and how it kept unchanged because of his incredible fitness and this was an important factor on Schumacher's consistency.
“And Michael Schumacher is 37 seconds ahead, so he can refuel the car, change all four wheels, take off his helmet, have a smoke and a cup of tea, and rejoin in first.” - Murray Walker
Superb video mate!
Monaco 1997, that is the quote I will always remember Murray for
I think having a smoke and a cup of tea would take longer than 37 seconds
@@truenoae8689 not with how fast Michael is
@@clubpenguin13531 well played
My first experience of seeing Schumacher live attending a race was at Silverstone in 2005, when that particular Ferrari wasn't a front running car.
I watched this red car turn in, in Friday practice on a surface that was 'green' and everyone was building up speed and at turn one, (a mighty corner) this red car at the absolute limit on a near flat out corner lost the rear end and the crowd went crazy, because the car was out of control mid corner and within milliseconds was corrected all the way through with reactions incomprehensible. I was absolutely stunned. You just knew that it was something superhuman. I couldn't get over what I just saw.
Man being able to watch the guy at his prime definitely must be a surreal feeling
Schumacher didn't join Ferrari until 96.
@@chanchaniceman i watched him at maranello when he was test driving. was unreal how fast he was
@MaxG: Got goosebumps reading that!
Schu comes from a modest family background, but he and his brother literally grew up on a cart track. Their father was the guy who had the rental cart business at the track.
When they were kids they used to grab the old tyres out of the trash bin which the richer kids had thrown away. I guess that’s when he learned how to get the best lap times out of his material.
Basically all those years until Schu got hired by the Mercedes Junior Team at 18y/o he had lesser resources while being more sucessful than the competion. It were those years of constant struggle against hardships and the need to be more sucessful with lesser resources that formed Schu into that brilliant driver and athlete.
I remember when I was a big fan of Schumacher when I was a kid, my dad would bring me toy F1 cars and I would pretend Schumacher was driving it, watched F1 on TV all the time. It's been almost 15 years already.
I remember watching Schum's car during races and it seemed to be sliding sideways into each corner. Like the tail of the car was turning with the front wheels. So you're explanation of how he did that makes a lot of sense.
@voice of reason I don't think high rear bias would work. He was micro drifting each corner. Its like balancing a stick on your hand. He was going just a little bit too fast to cause the back of the car to step out.
@voice of reason Why? Nothing your with your comment.
I recently rewatched the the Belgium Grand Prix from 1995 where Schumacher started from 16, stayed on Slicks during the first rain and won at the end. I was seven years old when that race actually happened and of course didn't know what went on just was happy that the fellow German guy my father was a fan of won.
But watching it back now I realised how great of a performance I have witnessed. He was an amazingly talented driver and then in the early 2000s Ferrari managed to give him a beast of a car on a regular basis. And it became one hell of a pairing.
Would have won 2005 IF stupid FIA did not remove tyre changes, 2006 was super close too, shouldn't retire so early, would won a few more times . .
For me, Schumacher's driving style at Ferrari in the 2000s was his style absolutely refined and perfected.
If you watch the onboards and focus on the nose of the car, keeping the steering wheel below and track above, in your periphery, you get a real idea about the attitude of the car through a corner. He braked hard into corners, shifted the weight to the front axel, and then began rotating the car. I've no idea about the specifics of the setup of the car, but from that initial turn-in, he managed to energise the rear, making the front end the major pivot point, modulating throttle and steering input for best rotation. Around mid-corner, he'd unwind the lock on the steering wheel (much earlier than other drivers), often ending up with it straight early after the apex, yet the car would still be rotating - getting the perfect slip angle allowing him to then apply throttle earlier. It was an absolute art form.
The fact he managed to do this (relatively) flawlessly lap after lap after lap (often being asked by the pit wall to put in 10-15 qualifying laps in the race to make the strategy work) demonstrated his absolute mastery on the track.
Watching Shumacher in the Benetton days you got the feeling of what this video has explained without fully analysing it or understanding why. It was just exciting to watch and you could just tell it was special not anywhere near the ordinary.
Michael Schumacher was and is my idol. I loved how he could win with a car that was much slower and took the car he had to its maxiumum. I loved the 90's and his last race with ferrari when he droppep to the back and made an unbeliveable drive back to the fronrunners, he showed everyone the magical driveing of his whole career. Just imagine if he would have continued 2 or 3 years moore with mercedes, he would be a 8 or 9 time world champion, he is the best to ever do it.
Schumacher biggest asset is actually his development driving skills. He is said to speak the Mechanic language. If you walk around the paddock and ask who is the best driver is the answer might vary but, if you ask who is the best development driver is its always going to be Schumacher
Or Alain Prost
It's difficult to compare a regular car you can buy at a car dealer with a Formula One car but I think that Michael Schumacher had a big advantage when it came to development because of his education. After he finished school Michael Schumacher enjoyed an apprenticeship as a car mechanic from 1986 to 1989 which he finished successfully with his apprenticeship exam. So when he came into Formula 1 Michael Schumacher was a trained car mechanic who knew very well about the functionality of cars in general.
Absolutely, thats the definitive difference between Schumacher and everybody else. Senna was quite fanatic about tuning the car as well, but yet he didnt quite have the same ability as Schumacher to create as much productivity and ultimately churn out the numbers. Other drivers could help a team, some could improve a team, a few could even improve a team dramatically, but only Schumacher could make a team. And yet he goes off into the wilderness to ski around huge boulders...
Actually no, I thought it was the opposite? Rubens was the one known for knowing how to setup the car, and Schumacher relied a lot on his input for setups. However what Schumacher was good at, was feedback on what the car was doing at any corner on any lap.
And yet one of his teambosses is quoted as saying: "technically, Schumacher is nothing special"
People who say silly things like “it’s ALL down to the car in F1” need to watch this. Sure if you put the best driver in the best car he will dominate (Hamilton : Mercedes), but if you put the best driver in a slower car he will destroy his team mate and finish several places higher than the car deserves by the end of the season, (Alonso : Ferrari). 😎Wishing Michael the best possible recovery 🙏🏼
The Ferraris were the superior cars though. That said, put a killer driver in the superior car and you cannot lose. Schumacher also had killer strategy to a point of not hesitating to being nasty (IE Monaco qualifying 2004 or 2005 I think, where he pretended to miss the last turn [LOL] and blocked everyone behind him and thus they could not finish their qualifying laps). The dude knew the rule book inside out, and he used every string on his bow. Back in the day he also had the better tyres, that was demonstrated with the Indianapolis fiasco in 2005. I remember Schumi going for power laps in ultra soft tyres, and pitting quite a bit more. He would do 10 laps with massive, much faster times at 5 to 8 seconds faster per lap, and that would enable him to pit more often.
@@Manu-Official Can’t argue with any of that Manu, he was absolutely focused and ruthless….. He certainly blew the Jordan team away when he first drove F1 with his talent and “spare mental capacity” He would have been a formidable Luftwaffe pilot in WWII for sure !
@@Manu-Official The Ferraris definitely were not the superior cars though lmao They had huge problems by the time Michael joined and even as he and the team whipped the car into condition, they still weren't indisputably the best car on the track, especially not against Mclaren. Plenty of the cars matched or were even better than the Ferrari. That's what makes pilots like Senna and Schumacher so phenomenal, they outpaced rivals in cars that weren't the best or were only just as good as the competing cars.
The only team mate hamilton ever destroyed was the useless guy at mclaren whos name escapes me. I mean even Bottas outqualifies him in like 1/3rd of races...
best driver in a slower car he will destroy his team mate and finish several places higher than the car deserves - George Russel
I swear everything you make is perfectly informative. I've actually learned a lot and I wanna say thank you
Thanks! Glad you're learning.
I used to watch F1 just for Schumacher, as many others did, and just like them, I didn't consciously understood what set him apart but now I do, thank you.
The biggest regret of my life is not seeing him in person at a grand prix. I love him so much
When you apply this logic, it makes sense why some of Schumacher's best moments for Mercedes were in the wet, Canada 2011 where he was up there with the Red Bulls and McLarens.
Or if look at British GP 2012 qualifying, Alonso and Webber had 2 runs on the intermediate where as Mercedes only sent Michael for one because they made a mistake and sent him on the full wets, meaning he only had 1 lap in the last 3 mins to get a time in and he only ended only 2 tenths off pole in the car that was a second or more off the pace in the race the day after, had he gone for 2 runs like the others, I'm sure he would have been on pole. German GP the race after he qualified 4th in the rain too.
The problem with Michael's comeback is his ability to maximise a car that doesn't suit his style had diminished, and this stood out even more because the Mercedes was generally 0.5-1.0 sec slower than the front teams. In the rain, as it always does, neutralized the field and this inherent problem was covered up, allowing him to for the top positions. They worked the Mercedes better to suit Michael's style in 2012 hence he was generally a match for Nico or faster, but that generation of F1 was never going to suit him, so for him to be so competitve in 2012 at his age of 43 speaks volumes to who the real GOAT is. A lot of people keep saying Nico thrased Michael in 3 seasons, he never, Michael's car failured a good 10 times between 2011 and 2012 whilst he was ahead of Nico in the races.
Also, the tires back then were notorious for being very soft and wearing out really quickly, so is style of always microdrifting the car to rotate it would have caused more stress on the tires which probably also hurt him more than other drivers
When Schumacher returned testing bans were introduced and major focus was was on simulators as F1 was trying to cut costs in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. This deprived him of getting a feel for the car and this showed up in qualifying even though his race pace was better than Rosberg's. He wasn't able to get the most from the car. Has Schumacher returned just one or two years before, he might have been able to develop a feel for the new engines. Don't forget, even with things like DRS it was virtually impossible to overtake Schumacher as we saw at Monza when he was instructed to allow Hamilton to overtake after several failed attempts.
@@V12F1Demon I am a Schumacher fan and prefer him over HAM, but we should be realistic here. The reason HAM could not overtake MSC in Monza was wrong gear Ratios
@@pokkaizemma2326 HAM had the benefit of DRS which neutralized that effect. Infact, the McLaren had better cornering speed which allowed HAM to brake later than MSC and this is where he would get up to MSC on the exit. Despite the faster, better balanced, late-breaking ability of the McLaren he was unable to get past bec MSC positioned the car expertly going into and out of turns. Ironically, HAM did the same thing to ROS in 2015 and 16 at Hungary or Austria, I forget.
@@pokkaizemma2326 This is true but I don't think any other driver would have had the smarts or defended that aggresively against Hamilton and hence kept the position for so long, you could argue Michael deserved a penalty for pushing Lewis on to the grass but I think Lewis learnt a lot about hard racing that race and a few years later he started pushing Rosberg off the road in the same fashion.
Michael was the star of that race purely because he went from 8th on the grid to 3rd, attacked Alonso for 2nd then eventually the pace of the car made him fall back to 5th.
After the video, i stood up and clapped my hands. Thank you. Never saw Schumacher's skills this way. Thanks a lot!
Berger and Alesi were not able to handle the Benetton of Michael.. then...Berger recognized how brilliant he was.
Bergers theory: How Schumacher bypassed the problem
At that time Berger had an idea how Schumacher managed to reach the absolute limit with the car suddenly breaking loose on bumps. And with a proactive driving style. "Schumacher's sensor technology was totally geared to that, because the car had built it that way from the start, and he could handle it - he probably instinctively counter-steered it before," Berger says in a discussion with Motorsport-Total.com. "It was so hard for me to understand that the last five-tenths of a second are so difficult."
That was also the moment in which he realized what an exceptional artist his then intimate enemy Schumacher was, which he also dismantled his last doubts: "Who had this car so confidently in the border area under control, had to be absolute extra class."
translate.google.si/translate?hl=sl&sl=de&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.motorsport-total.com%2Fformel-1%2Fnews%2Fwarum-benetton-nach-schumacher-das-siegen-verlernte-16121302&fbclid=IwAR1abneSUy6PAo-lLkvSjhZxk8fgvnG1AZ4upV12H5zhzQIY3cZdY2RPxm0
Well Berger and Alesi where actually pretty bad at testing and took Benetton like holidays
Damjan Stevanovic EXACTLY 🙏🏻
after that Berger changed. Michael was a young brillant driver whit the "popo-meter"
Totally different cars and setup...
That all combined with a on track attitude, that didn´t accept compromises made him sooo good. Some might call it "ruthless" or "ugly" what he did at times but this was another aspect that made him an ultimate winner. About that particular aspect (not about the driving technique) he was quite like Senna. The Brazilian also had a "either you break or we crash, I won`t change the line" attitude.
This man is so special and it's so sad what happened to him.
Great Video man Really learning a lot from your channel 🙏
I love that you are into these channels too man. Big fan 😍
Waiting for Mr Steel to open a simracing channel called Mr Carbonfiber
This guy basically copied an official formula 1 documentary almost word for word.
One of my favorite driver, he was squeezing as much as he could from any car and was passionate about it same like my other favorite Senna, with a different driving style, but sharing the same passion. And I think that all about racing. THE PASSION.
He was my fav, I grew up watching him after Senna was tragically taken away from this world Schumi took the mantle up and provided us with Magic, what a talent who worked extremely hard to keep at the front and always performed regardless what motor he had.
Schumacher is probably the only driver who looked the same when was winning cart championships in 1987 at the age of 18 to when he finally retired at the age 43 in 2012.
I've never said this about a channel but I love this one. Dude has a ridiculous amount of not only knowledge (anyone can get that) but understanding. This was a very nerdy video but still couldn't turn it off. Keep them coming!
Amazing insight.... not enough is done on the Red Baron and that special visual driving style of his.. thanks #keepfighting
Michael also showed versatility in driving skills with his stint in Mercedes sports cars prior to F1... legendary period and cars
I miss Michael Schumacher so much... legendary badass. I hope he can at least know how much the world loves him. 😔💙
Great video Scott, big thank you ... I describe Michael as the most complete driver to ever drive an F1 car, unfortunately he often doesn’t the credit he deserves from fans whom focus on the controversy’s. But those whom really understand F1, understand what an incredible talent he was and why his style, both in and out of the car, is the yardstick in which young drivers today are measured against. Keep Fighting Michael.
Hes the best f1 driver of all time
I drove 2 GoKart races with(against) him in my youth, the gokart scene in this time in germany was pretty hard and competetive.
he dominated alone with this technique so hard, difference in gokart is that you do most of this with your bodyweight and movement
and he was well known for that :-).
his cars got way more heavier so he had to adapt to this(his?) technique you showed here.
nicely video :)
Yeah, sometime in the 00s there was a friendly GoKart race between F1 drivers, and Michael completely floored them all.
Schumacher nailed it in his own words. His ability to perceive and react to feedback is/was insane. Most drivers couldn't even bare to drive his car. He thrived on feedback, as all drivers of F1 caliber do... but he took it took extremes. Most drivers would literally be frazzled after just a few laps trying to wrestle the feedback he preferred in his steering and suspension preferences.
Thanks for the explanation. It always struck me in the early Benetton days that his entry was a visibly sharper angle than the others, now I know why.
This is for the people, who said Schumchar was a mid-tier driver, cheater..... I mean he was something else, people need to respect legends and it doesn't matter if it is Lewis, Ayrton, Micheal or Fangio. All of them from different eras, all exceptional.
Illegal traction control 100%
What about Sebastian Vettel he got 4 championship in a row and the youngest peson to win a world championship in f1
Ive never heard anyone say he's a mid level driver lmao, cheater yes but mid tier nope. He did all kinds of shit that any other driver wouldn't be allowed to.
@@sv52308 what about Seb?? That's a whole different video on it's own. Seb is definitely a legend in his own right.
@@stpbasss3773 okay sure 😁👍
He's still the greatest in my eyes.
What brought me into following F1 is Schumacher himself, always reading the headlines with his name and articles speak of him in great praising sense, it made want to know why is he so good!!! then I became so attached to watching him every weekend, the amount of dedication he has and consistency in his performance is beyond anything i have ever scene in any discipline in life and not only sport. he is phenomenally talented, and he is dearly missed as well... wish him the Legend well and recovery.
I remember in the early 2000’s when Michael came out for one lap qualifying and was like a second and a half faster at Melbourne. All the teams looking at their monitors like “fuck...”
MikeE would come out late so he didn't have to kick everyones ass twice, then boom ok Pos #1, lets have Schnitzel
Great video! I was a huge Schumacher fan when he was at Ferrari. This was very informative. Thanks!
Briatore was right about Schumacher...he fought through so many eras and adversaries... Villeneuve,Hill,Prost,Mansell,Senna, Coulthard,Hakkinnen, Raikkonnen, JPM and ultimately Alonso...he had top class competitiveness from his rivals throughout his career.
Let's not forget nico Rosberg. Didn't fair particularly well though.
Pfft he needed illegal driver aids to beat Senna
@@CappyRev oh please, Senna was a hack compared to Schumacher.
@@2003wrx64 LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. Even Schumacher said Senna was the best ever. About the yobbo opinion I'd expect from someone that drives a 2003 wrx.
@@Bahamuttiamat It's okay though young Nico was also a champion in 2016.
The first driver to truly dominate F1 as a hole in a way we’ve never seen before. Yes there have been moments where his morality of racing has come into question. But you can not deny the impact this guy had on the sport as a whole and the records he wrote.
Schumacher is basically driving a f1 race like it's a drag strip with some corners mixed in.
I remember some journalist got to sit in a car driven by Schumacher , it was a demo run with their new car , I forgot who it was or what car it was but I remember the journalist write that it was scary how precise Schumacher was, there were markers to show where the perfect line was for drivers who were there to test the car. Schumacher hit everyone perfectly on both laps way faster than the guy thought was safe. On the second lap Schumacher said it was a fun lap and drifted the car a little, but once again hitting every marker perfectly.
I've seen/read elsewhere that a lot of Schumacher's speed came from his tremendous feel in the pedals, and that he would balance the car and steer it slightly by slightly overlapping the brake and accelerator, and generally having perfect footwork. Do you think this is the case Scott?
Yes I'd agree with that, pedal work is key.
Imagine what could have been if Ferrari actually had build good cars for more than only half of his time with them.
If he didn't retire in 06 we would have won the 07 and 08 title
@@georgeyacoub6719 08 yes, 07 doubt it.. McLaren was miles ahead.. the only reason Kimi won was because Alonso and Lewis ego plus the idiotness of Ron autodestroyed their title hopes
@@j3d89 Michael was really good even when the cars he had driven was a bit slower than the top cars.
@@j3d89 Umm no, the only reason Alonso and Hamilton came close to Kimi wad because he had more mechanical issues and DNF's.
He would hav EASILY had 3 or 4 more wins if his car wasn't so unreliable.
He was *100%* the better driver then both of them in 2007 and the only reason they came close to him was because Kimi had shit luck and Mclaren had great cars
ferrari was also having an internal war at the time
Once I heard that Shumacher was so great, that he spoke calmly during racing, like he was cornering flat out a corner while thinking what he was going to eat for dinner on his private jet.
because he was driving on autopilot basically. his throttle input, braking and steering is automatic. he doesn't think about it. when you're racing for a couple of laps, you won't be even thinking that you're racing
Muscle memory
It’s refreshing to hear clear, concise, and expert driving skills explained in this kind of format. I’ve been a professional driving instructor for military and law enforcement since 2009 and current stunt coordinator for over 30 years. I will pass your channel onto all my future students. The 100% adhesion rule is explained far better in this brief video than I’ve ever heard.
Best to you and all your future endeavors.
Schumi forever!❤️❤️❤️
If you have ever seen Schumacher in a kart race video, you might notice that he is a master tactician.
Hamilton will never be remembered the same as Schumacher. Even if he surpasses Micheals records. Because pretty much everyone knows Hamilton never really had to fight for his championships with Mercedes dominance
so did we watch different seasons in 2008, 2014 and 2017-2019?
@@felixone7506 in 2008 mclaren was a head runner for the championship and that year could have resulted in anything, especially from what happened in brazil. by 2009, everything changed ib f1 from my eyes. it was one team dominating and bullying all other teams, and the first car was light years ahead of the rest. no wonder hamilton left for mercedes, its not that he couldnt compete with vettel, his mclaren was too slow to compete. red bull was unbeatable in all ways possible, it made vettel a 4x champion, just as mercedes made nico rosberg and hamilton unworthy champions. the second best car was light years behind, the margin mercedes won was so big, they had a 1 2 finish in the championship for 4 years with no sweat. lewis is a great driver, its all luck he won 6 championships. and along with alonso choosing to race for mclaren instead of any other team, kimi not bothering for anything, vettel becoming a cry baby and rosberg acting like a 12 year old kid, it was no coincidence lewis won so much.
I guess MSC's Ferrari didn't win 6 straight constructors championships. Nope, that never happened....You armchair experts will want to believe whatever makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside.
@@thelarry383 ohright mr prost. schumi faced hakkinen coulthard barrichello alonso montoya and ralf as his main opponenta yet he still came on top even when his ferrari was never the fastest car and neither the most powerful yet reliable. its not ferrari who dominated, it was schumi who dominated.
@@emiliospowerballer1441 Hamilton beat Alosno in his rookie year and only lost the championship because of a bad pitstop call. Also MSC always had no1 status at Ferrari and they had a dominant car for many of his championships. MSC also cheated his way to the championship against Hill.
Schumacher did all this before they had real time telemetry and the teams weren't able to help as they do today. Data was exchanged only when cars ran past the pits. So, the drivers drove in silence most of the time having to figure out what the steering was telling them and the lights meant instead of being told by the race engineer. Schumacher was brilliant at this and also used his instinct for extracting the most from the tyres.
They had radio as early as 1988
Shumy used the 4 wheel drift to set the chassis for fast exits like few drivers have. Often an instantaneous act that while almost impreceptible made his a championship style.
For someone who occasionally drives there 1.0 ecoboost focus to the shops i am certainly learning alot more then I need 😂
You could greatly improve your home-shop-home lap times.
What a fantastic video! Love the insights. Schumacher was truly a great driver and a great man. To me, he is the GOAT!
Absolutely! This just definitively proves it.
Schumacher used extreme oversteer to help the car turn, which made him really fast, especially in the mid-90s. This driving style, however, would also wear out the rear tires faster, which especially hurt him at the end of his career.
Please tell it like it is. Compared to his team mates and with his style, he usually could stay out a tad longer than the others. IF tyre wear ever was a weakness, he worked a way around it with his feel, AND car setup. His style was made a bit more for sprint racing, but it never degraded his tyres that he'd run into massive troubles, at least not before his team mates. Even in 2011 he stayed in the paddock til 5am to work out the car and its flaws.
@@Jejking He was struggling a lot in 2011 and 2012 with rear tire degradation, which at that time was a Mercedes weakness as well. During the Bridgestone era tire wear was less of an issue, even though he struggled to get the maximum out of the tires in 2005.
@@schumiisking He literally pulled that oversteer and it hurting him later lmao. If shumi set up his cars with extreme oversteer then we would have heard someone mention it through all the years he raced and all the documentaries and videos on shumi. When he was on Mercedes they sucked, people tend to forget that Mercedes wasn't instantly successful when they returned to F1. Shit, most people don't even know Mercedes was in F1 and successful before Ferrari and they left the sport in the 30s because of a crazy crash that a Merc flew into the crowd killing 80 people and then Ferrari finally could win lmao.
@@schumiisking Thank you for your respectful and interesting comment.
@@stpbasss3773 Umm Mercedes had succes sure.
But they were barely better then Ferrari in the past
I heard a story where Alesi was looking at MS's telemetry and noticed how fast he was entering a corner. He then tried the same thing and destroyed the car and hurt himself. To be able to do that time after time is what made him remarkable.
Berger and Herbert used Michaels Setup and said the car was undriveable for them
They wanted to know if his setup was making the difference. Then they knew it was Michaels skills to drive that beast at the limit with this Setup.
Around 2005 when i was 5 years old, my father buy me this yellow bed sheet and there was this big red majestic car with "Malboro" written on its huge rear wing and the number 1 on its front, there's also this black horse symbol on a bright yellow shield on its side. I once asked my father, who the driver was, He answered, "That's Schumacher, the Champion who keeps on winning his battles". Then i watched F1 for the first time, never in my life i've seen such an incredible race. The beautiful cars, the intense straight line battle, the crazy cornering speed.. It was simply fantastic! I can still feels the fire from my childhood everytime i watch it now but the fire is even bigger and brighter when i watch schumacher's footage from his days.
That's how i ended up loving F1.
I dont know where can i find my bedsheet now though, We most likely didnt bring it with us when we moved out of the city.
Nice video, well explained 👍! To all those who keep saying he didn't deserve his championships, well, good luck with that. His driving style and technique were unique, and I have always loved seeing him race the best drivers from his time, so to me he still stands on p1, along with Senna and Prost. Keep those videos coming!
I should have said at the start that the video has nothing to do with him winning championships, just his style and technique.
Love these videos Scott!
Would be absolutely awesome if you could continue this series and add Hakkinen, Raikkonen, Alonso, Vettel and Hamilton too.
Thanks for making the quarantine just that bit more bearable!
Häkkinen, the only driver able to challenge Schumacher during his prime.
Please make a video about Gilles Villeneuve driving style, that would certainly be interesting because of his unorthodox approach to racing.
Great idea.
@@Driver61 Thanks Man ! Your the best !
Mubarak Ahmad It seems like he was similar to Schumacher in a way, always sliding his car into corners to get a better exit, but just taken to an extremely aggressive level
@@CheesyHotDogPuff Every great Driver has done that, if you were to look how a car reacts being pushed to the limit it slides but in a very suddle way. Even incredibly smooth drivers like Alain Prost did that if you were to look at his onboard like Estroil 1990 you could see the car slided a bit on most corners, every great Driver had just a different technique in achieving that hence why some Drivers slided the Car more than others but Gilles style is certainly very different because it defies all Physical limitations of a Driver reacting to a slide & the Car being able to carry the slide so perfectly. As Jackie Stewart once said about him:
His Car control was EXTRAORDINARY, he could push a Grand Prix car to its ultimate limit.
And yes I do agree with you. :)
@@Driver61 Also please make a video on Mika Hakkinen, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel.
Excellent analysis. Schumacher made so many tiny corrections mid corners to make time by getting the car straightened for exit whilst most drivers just braked late into corners and figured it out from there. I used to try this in road cars on the swiss mountain roads through the tunnels. On exit when everyone is braking, you change down and gas and you get this incredible grip and speed. (Don't try this at home. Obviously.) For Schumacher it was all day, every day. Every corner, every lap. If I am not mistaken, he invented the hot in- lap.
Sensibility is the key. Schumy was a "gently beast" driver. No one can match his sensibility for the limit. He could feel the speed and car equilibrium better than anyone else.
Would you say he was a 'gentle beast' when he crashed into competitors to take them out of the race so he would win titles?
Schumacher's driving style was exemplary- can't be beaten!
Great video, some really good insight. Schumacher was amazingly fit and in an actual race was there ever anyone better? Yes, others like Senna were better qualifiers but over a tough race distance MSc really hard to beat
What can you say about this video other than "well done,sir"?! A worthy sub, my friend! Flawlessly put together all the information to let us know exactlly what happened, how it happened and what it achieved. Schumi was really one of a kind, real genius!
I read somewhere, that Schumi had a special ability. While other drivers worked corners/turns with all body and mind, Schumi could let his body work on a current corner/turn, while his eyes and brain looked for and prepared already for the next corner/turn.
That's simply a basic rule of racing, any decent driver looks ahead to the next apex before they actually reach it.
It makes me laugh when people say Schumacher had illegal software 94, his team mates only scored 11 points all season 94
Michael scored 92 and was disqualified from 4 races
94,95 all his benneton team mates only scored 56 altogether.
96 Schumacher goes to Ferrari drives f310 This was one season before Ross brawn came along. But even his one year at Ferrari he instantly beat benneton, so
did Ferrari have illegal electronics as-well all you Schumacher hater's ??
It's obvious benneton had special software alright" it's name was
"Michael Schumacher"
The fact that Schumi was fighting for the champion with Jacques in 97 and Mika in 98 and 99 shows how good he is. Ferrari's cars at that time were inferior.
This proves Schumacher is the best we’ve ever seen on track, thanks for the video.
Schumacher and lewis hamilton are not the greatest of all time
We will never know who the best is .
To find out who the greatest of all time is you would have to give all of them the same car and let them race each other.
In formula 1 the cars do the majority of the work.
th-cam.com/video/sMvgRy0GeRQ/w-d-xo.html
Schumacher's style is distilled in one word, ruthless!....He was very interested in the science of the sport and when at Ferrari the car hardly ever broke, gifting him 1 or 2 championships....I hope we see him hale and hearty in public soon.....
Thank you 🙏🏻😊 so interesting and clear for me (I’m french 😬)
I have supported Michael during his whole career, miss him so much ❤️❤️❤️❤️
I wish this video was longer
Same here, and I'm not a Schumacher fan, quite the opposite. Excellent video.
it was as long as Palmer's BBC analysis of Schumacher's driving style copied from the BBC 1995 British Grand Prix...
Schumacher’s secret: talent, skill brains
Hamilton’s secret: being in a Mercedes for 8 years
Well he is in a mercedes for a reason
@@nqabanyathi7659 because of the money
As usual Schumacher all skills when he wins by 30 to 40 second. By it the car when LH wins. U tools are all fools.
He developed his ability to keep the car sliding on gokarts. We well never see a champion like him anymore...
Actually anything is possible .... don’t discount that it could happen. I used to use his style on the highways of NZ when I was in a hurry. Once learned it’s all transferable
@@chrisbraid2907 even me doin that but control the slip angle was difficult.
Congrats for the quality of the comments and analysis!
Every time I watch this video I realize that Schumacher drives the car like it’s a motorcycle. He wears it like a glove. He feels the essence of its behavior. Legendary
This Language of "Feel" is the essence of Motorcycle Racing. The motorcycle rider has many more inputs that determine performance & lap time. This is why the skill of the Rider has so much more to do with the overall lap time than the driver of a car does. Essentially the fastest car with an average driver has a much better chance of winning than an average rider on the fastest motorcycle.
I love this series of videos, very fascinating.
I'd love to see the current driver's with proper cars, pushing to the limit every lap, a lot are very fast but I reckon a lot won't be able to carry their speed all the time without mistakes.
Thanks mate!
The Benetton with the raised nose is one of the most beautiful F1 car I've ever laid my eyes on
It just looks like something that can be called a car with the best Formula
I think it was at Nico Roserbgs podcast where he said Schuhmacher would drive above the curbs in the training session so his floor could be lower to the ground the just get a little less drag. That is actually so mindblowing to even think about that.
Sad sad story, hope for a full recovery. Truly missed
His pleasant demeanor and intellect made a huge impact. Best wishes Michael.
"Write that down! Write that down!!"
For me Schumacher is the greatest of all time. I actually loved when he was at Benetton. In them days he was the upstart who was causing so much head scratching among the other teams. The man is a hero.
Has Hamilton or any other drivers got races that can compare to Schumacher's 1996 Spanish GP or the 1998 Hungarian Grand Prix? They're the races of a true legend.
He always spoke the truth as well, not like some of the nonsense you could hear coming out of certain drivers like Montoya and Villeneuve. Complete pair of plebs.
Scott, you can do "why Fangio was so fast" please
Fangio may be quick but the rest of the field were just mechanics or rich people. It wasn't made of the best of the best drivers till the early 60s. I'm not saying Fangio was bad but it's difficult to see just how fast he was.
He can't, because there wasn't any analysis from experts before that he can copy and post as his own...
Oceanside, California. What an incredible TH-cam site. The best f1 and driving in general analyst I've ever seen. Great job Steve !
I remember a GP in Estoril in the 90s where Schumi overtook a Williams - on the outside line - sideways - in the rain. That was mental!
Even if Lew-Lew Hamilton wins 10 WDCs, Schumacher will still remain the GOAT
Senna No.1