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Dottore,
Your comments belie an either a wilful ignorance of both Benetton's and early Ferrari shenanigans or genuine lack of knowledge.
Bentton was instrumental in the use of hidden traction control when it was banned... but that should not play a part in MS's success should it.. nor should one incident, in Australia which happened to mean MS won the championship rather than Damien Hill...now why should somebody whose superiority is such that such tactics are needed?
Lets face it that had MS not finished that race then he would not have been WC, all Hill had to do was finish...so much for superiority. (PS Hill was a by no means an exceptional racing driver...but he was very very good at getting the car right so that he didn't have to race so much with the others... and to be honest is easy to see why. Hill does not figure on my list of great racing drivers).
Needless to say MS's tactics against Villeneuve which got him disqualified from second were again great sportsmanship events for a person whose talent was so superior as to not need it.
Cs119, that's why there is more than a whiff of 'not sportsmanship about his victories.. to say nothing of his wins when Eddie was his team mate....
To say nothing of Ferrari's reluctance to reveal their codes to the FIA governing their own traction control....until they knew full well McLaren were going to beat them regardless and they became more open...
Granted since Mika has gone Ferrari have been far less secretive about their car, prefering to use the power of the stewards to do the work.. and all power to them. It is a sport to be played out on the track, in the pits and in the circus of the technical arean and Ms has made that is greatest power base.
I would imagine a great sportsman would have blocked the Monaco track.....sure his superiority is so great he can beat anyone easily...even on a difficult track.
Total BS...he is and remains a driven man.. one whose succes has made him believe that he is to be treated differently to all others.
That he is this way is not surprising... Senna and Prost were the same...Senna leading the way in making F1 a contact sport. But he made no bones about it.. no excuses..up front and honest.
Ms' BS excuses have, to my mind demeaned him so much that he knows full well we know he f#d up and rather than be honest aobut it wraps it up in BS..
I admire MS's record and it demonstrates a dedication and talent that ranks in the to two of three best ever, but that is not greatness....
Its is also very easy to forget the Ferrari victories by Prost, Berger and Alesi in the years prior to MS arriving...as easy as it is to miss their relative success as a leading team in the same time frame. They were not a crap no hope team...by any standards..its bit like saying Williams is a crap no hope team as they have not won a championship for almost 10 years..What they were not is consistent...like the road cars of the era...or McLaren in the same time period...the old guard was being over taken by the young blood and needed time to reorganise themselves and nurture the new generation..that MS was part of that is his good fortune and ability..
As for 15 out of 17... again the figures belie the reality. Ferrari were beaten twice that year... McLaren were not defeated... a mutual assured destruction is different to a defeat.
As for 'my countrymen'.. let me correct you.. I'm not British..
The bias here is not that he is German, happily married etc etc and not a holigan. Its that in a nation whose view is that being great is not only about winning, his approach has not revealed his supposed greatness. Lets face it Senna, hardly less pleasant as an individual and no less determined found a far greater following here and to date he retains far more respect than MS ever had. Some is doubltess due to the manner of his death.. but more because of the approach he took to winning.
I think the issue, and rightly so, is the blurring between the record and the success, which MS monopolised in a manner unlikely to be beaten.. and the manner in which it is achieved...The US looks at success as a quantum.. over here the manner in which you go about things is as, if not, more important...Being a winner counts for nothing if its at 'any cost'...
Believe me Ross Brawn is as disliked here as MS.. for the same reasons....even if he is English.
MS is a modern day gladiator, a victor in the bloody field were all that counts is winning...not the manner of that victory not the peerless ability...in motor racing Fangio demonstrated perhaps the 'greatest' of that mixture...a poise and dedication mixed with a ruthlessness of ability.
Did you guys not see the snippet with Flavio B after the press conference?... His verdict was 'I will not miss him'...so I doubt very much he will return with Renault... remeber thay are the old Benetton team.. as left by Bryne, Brawn and MS...so hardly likely to be very receptive to a return.
As for Kimi... next year is the most important one in his F1 career.. the car is going to be super hot, super reliable and he is going to all alone...not excuses nowhere to hide, especially if Ferrari win the WC....and Alonso will be even more anxious, as will McLaren to demnstrate that they have what it takes.
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