Did Schumacher Try To Cheat?

Now that today’s Monaco Grand Prix is in the record books, with Michael Schumacher finishing a very respectable fifth after starting from the back of the grid, we can look at the question that has been on everyone’s mind… did Michael Schumacher deliberately stop his car on track at the end of qualifying to ensure that he would win the pole?

FIA President Max Mosley said that he wouldn’t go so far as to call it cheating but that armed with all of the information the race stewards, who are fair-minded people, had made a fair decision. He further stated, “You’ve got to take the thing in its context, in the heat of the moment when you are desperately trying to get on the front row of the grid and you’ve got a split second to make a decision.” So there you have it, Mosley doesn’t think it was cheating because Schumacher would have had to think quickly if he was going to cheat. I’m not entirely sure what this implies but perhaps Mosley didn’t have long enough to think about this statement.

However, I do agree with Mr. Mosley that I don’t think Schumacher was trying to cheat. Even though I am not, and never have been, much of a Schumacher fan I think that he is much too smart to make such a blatantly stupid move on purpose. He is the most successful driver of our time and, with all of his experience, if he had really wanted to hold up the field he could certainly have figured out a less obvious way of doing it.

There was a time in the past when I would probably have thought differently, and there may be an element of Karma in the way that Schumacher was judged this weekend, but I don’t think that this was one of Formula One’s better decisions.

Posted: Sunday, May 28th, 2006

Fernando Alonso Wins Controversial 2006 Monaco GP

Fernando Alonso won today’s 2006 Monaco Grand Prix–his first win on this circuit–from the pole, but that wasn’t where he qualified.

In the last few seconds of qualifying yesterday, provisional pole-sitter Michael Schumacher ran wide and stopped just short of the barrier on the outside of the already tight, double-righthand Rascasse corner. With half of the road blocked and a local yellow flag in effect all of the cars behind him, including Alonso, had to slow at the corner and no one had a chance to better Schumacher’s time.

Immediately the conspiracy theorists and rival teams started suggesting that Schumacher had stopped there on purpose to make sure that he would win the pole. The stewards announced that they were looking into it and eight hours later they disallowed all of his qualifying times, sending Schumacher to the back of the grid. They also docked Giancarlo Fisichella his three fastest laps for “impeding” David Coulthard, moving Fisichella back to 10th on the grid.

The first half of the race was fairly uneventful but then the attrition started and within a couple of laps Mark Webber and Kimi Raikkonen had dropped out of third and second place respectively with engine problems.

As is usual at Monaco, there wasn’t much passing but Schumacher made some good moves and the combination of attrition, a single stop strategy and some well-timed blue flags let him make it all the way to fifth place by the end of the race. Schumacher might even have finished higher but there was no way that ex-teammate Rubens Barrichello was going to move aside for him today.

Complete GP of Monaco results.

Posted: Sunday, May 28th, 2006

Fernando Alonso Wins 2006 Spanish GP

Fernando Alonso did everything he needed to in order to win today’s Grand Prix of Spain in front of his cheering home fans. Starting from the pole he pulled away from his competition and never put a foot wrong.

His win–the third of the year–ended Michael Schumacher’s winning streak and snatched back a couple of the points that Schumacher had gained on his championship lead in the past two events. With his Renault teammate Giancarlo Fisichella finishing third this was a great result for Alonso and a pretty good one for Renault.

The problem was that, unless you were cheering for Alonso’s pit crew, there really wasn’t very much to keep you interested. No one looked likely to beat Alonso unless he broke down or made a mistake and that wasn’t likely as his worst finish of the year has been second.

Complete GP of Spain results.

Posted: Sunday, May 14th, 2006

Michael Schumacher Wins 2006 European GP

Michael Schumacher made it two-in-a-row today by winning the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring in front of a happy German crowd.

Not a particularly exciting race, but for Schumacher’s fans it was like a trip back in time. Behind polesitter Fernando Alonso from the start, Schumacher put in three incredibly quick laps when Alonso made his second pit stop. After his own stop Schumacher returned to the track in front of Alonso and that was the race.

Felipe Massa brought the second Ferrari home in third place–his first podium for Ferrari–to make it a very good day for the team as they continue to chip away at Alonso and Renault in the points.

Alonso will have to be at his best in his home race in Spain next weekend if he is to break Schumacher’s streak and reassert himself as the man to beat this year.

Complete GP of Europe results.

Posted: Sunday, May 7th, 2006