Why Lewis and Schumi are so alike (article)

[blue8]

From Planet F1:

Why Lewis And Schumi Are So Alike Schumi fans have been appalled that Lewis Hamilton should compare himself - even in a tangential fashion - to the blessed Saint Michael. In fact the letters page is full of representations from fans of Schumacher who cannot believe he would do such a thing. However they're not the only ones who are appalled. Lewis's stylist is also not happy that Lewis should compare himself to the man who - fashionwise - was the biggest disaster since MC Hammer's baggy pants. The evidence? Check out the Mullet Years. Ultimately, does it matter? Of course not, but for the record Schumi and Lewis are similar in quite a few aspects and dissimilar in just as many. Dissimilar: Michael was a staunch member of the Grand Prix Drivers Association. Lewis, like Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen has yet to join. Similar: Both men are fantastic drivers in the wet. Schumi earned his name Der Regenmeister for his supreme car control in the wet. When Lewis Hamilton finished the 2008 British GP sixty seconds clear of the second placed man following his monumental drive at Mount Fuji in 2007, it was clear that Lewis was the new Regenmeister. Dissimilar: Even though Rolf Schumacher knew a lot about motorsport and managing his kart track in Kerpen, he realised that Michael's career would be better served by having Willi Webber guide him. Lewis is still managed by his father and many see that as something that could hold Lewis back. Similar:Schumi and Lewis are both able to overtake people against the odds. Lewis showed this as early as his second grand prix. Some of Schumacher's overtaking moves are the stuff of legend. (Except we've got them on videotape, so we don't need a legend). Dissimilar:With Lewis Hamilton the worst bit of skulduggery he's ever done on the track is not to let his team-mate by in an early fuel burning phase of qualifying With Schumi - where do you want to start? His critics would claim he is the single biggest cheat in motorsport. He's crashed into Damon Hill to claim the 1994 World Championship, caused accidents with Mika Hakkinen in F3 and swerved into him at speed in F1, parked his car on the racing line to try and stop a GP (Austria), parked his car in qualifying to prevent other people grabbing pole at Monaco and tried to claim the 1997 World Championship by crashing into Jacques Villeneuve. Schumi is the Dick Dastardly of F1 but his charisma has seen him through. Similar: Both Lewis and Michael elicit strong emotions in racing fans. They're either loved or hated. It might be because they both have a very high opinion of theirown respective talents. Dissimilar: Michael always used to have a stand-off relationship with his championship rivals - he couldn't stand DC, Jacques Villeneuve and Damon Hill disliked him. Schumi never spent much time with Hakkinen, Montoya, Raikkonen or Alonso. Lewis is quite the opposite - he's big mates with Felipe Massa and Robert Kubica. Similar: Neither Lewis or Michael like(d) doing interviews on the grid before a race. Lewis makes up for it by giving ITV dedicated interviews after qualifying on Saturday and Schumi made the financial most of his dislike by signing an exclusive deal with German TV broadcasters to talk to them on the grid. Dissimilar: Michael's a god-fearing man who gave an enormous amount to charity after the Asian tsunami. There's no record of Lewis showing any kind of religious devotion - other than to the God of Bling. Similar: They both like having passive No.2 drivers - Michael had a succession of No.2s - Irvine, Barrichello and Massa. Lewis Hamilton learned a lot from Fernando Alonso but prefers Kovalainen. Dissimilar: Michael had a lot of help from the FIA in his career. His critics maintain that without a sympathetic FIA it's likely he wouldn't have won the 94 (Unnecesary collision with Hill), 95 (Benetton ban for use of traction control in 94), 2000 (Mystifying punishment of Hakkinen in deciding race) and 2003 (Re-writing of tyre rules) titles, making him just a three-time World Champion like Jackie Stewart. On the other hand Lewis Hamilton, though having a honeymoon period at the start of his career, cannot put a wheel wrong in 2008 without punishment. Similar: Both Michael and Lewis drive with a karting style, driving on the very edge of adhesion and waiting to lose the back end of the car before making the tiniest and most sublime of adjustments. However, Schumi did it a hell of a lot longer than Lewis.

[dr vinyl]

Id like to say some things on this.
Ive followed Micheals time in F1 as a fan.
Mainly IMO because of the excitment Micheal gave when he got his game on.
But lets skip year 1 of Micheal in F1 & go straight to 1992,
1992 Martin Brundell was his team mate at benetton,
Martin had a bad start to that year but still out performed Micheal
in qually & Races..
the same can not be said about Lewiss first year,
a rookie vs two time WC using the same equipment,
ending the season on the exactly the same amount of points.
Lewis has studied Senna on video & this is were his understanding
of how to drive on a wet track comes from,its not magic its understanding.
Again Senna showed a very nieve Micheal quite a few things in Micheals
first 3 years,(posibly this is were Micheal learned about raming the oppistion)
I see the way Lewis lets the back of the car out and this reminds me more
of the gentlemen racers of the 6ts...
well thats my lot.dr

[Pokiou]

I must say the information on the first post kinda sums it up whether Michael fans or Kimi fans like it or not. Lewis is going to be excellent racer and contender for the World Championship.

[Mattk]

His critics maintain that without a sympathetic FIA it's likely he wouldn't have won the 94 (Unnecesary collision with Hill), 95 (Benetton ban for use of traction control in 94), 2000 (Mystifying punishment of Hakkinen in deciding race) and 2003 (Re-writing of tyre rules) titles, making him just a three-time World Champion like Jackie Stewart.

I think this is quite an erroneous statement devoid of logic. It is fallacious to assume that without FIA sanction he would not have won. It also assumes that he did something wrong, when it was held he was not wrong. Hamilton has gone through the same process with negative results. Too bad. Cop it sweet. Times change and interpretations change.

Nevertheless, I do agree that Schumacher was a slightly dirty driver who liked trickery. However, he is still one of the best to have raced an F1 car.

[JoeHahn]

It's funny that they conveniently forget the race bans and points lost during the '94 season and just go straight to the Damon Hill incident.

Silverstone '94 - Schumacher gets disqualified and recieves a 2 race ban for overtaking hill on the warm up lap.
Spa '94 - Schumacher is again disqualified, this time for having the skid block too low which had been worn down from excessive wear (which others had been disqualified for)
Italy '94 - Excluded
Portugal '94 - Excluded

Other than that his race finishes went like this. 1st, 1st, 1st, 1st, 2nd, 1st, 1st, 1st, 2nd - Very Hamilton-esque, oh wait it isnt.

To say that Schumacher was very stand-offish with his opposition, so would anyone when their back was against the wall. The entire english speaking world media was against Schumacher, either when he was fighting Hill or Villeneuve, much the same with Alonso while he was at Mclaren. Schumacher was friends with Mika Hakkinen during his entire career. He pretty much mentored Massa to where he is, seemed happy about Raikkonen joining Ferrari and even phones Vettel before races or after races to see how he went. The fact that Villeneuve was a nobody and still takes his swipes at Schumacher shows his character.

Lets not forget Spa '98 where by far the most dangerous incident I've seen occur during F1 happened when DC lifted on the racing line in torrential rain near Pouhon heading towards the Bus Stop. Coulthard was in no way reprimanded by the officials, yet later even he said that he was at fault for the incident.

Also to say Schumachers driving style is similar to Lewis' is semi-bogus aswell. Schumacher was not overly hard on his tyres while still able to trail brake into most corners and continue through the corner with massive speed. Hamilton on the other hand attempts, and fails to execute it properly and on turn-in locks the inside tyre the majority of the time and goes on to blister the shoulder of his tyres. Bridgestone forcing him to 3 stop in some races - I havent seen anyone have that effect on tyres that badly (other than Michelin at Indy)

It's ok for the British media to say that Lewis is like Schumacher, but when they start going into Schumachers career its like Lewis Hamilton descended from heaven. They will never let up. Also including the fact that Schumacher throws copious amounts of money at Charity - while Lewis is too busy pimping up is G-Class. It's funny how Lewis hardly ever mentions Schumacher and always talks about Senna. If he beats Senna - he'll only be half way to being compared to Schumacher

[jamsbong]

I can accept that Michael has done things unfairly in the past but I completely disagrees with the 1994 season's accident in Adelaide. To me, Hill lost his opportunity. From the start, it was clear that Hill was faster, fair enough that Michael did his best to keep Hill behind. Then, the pressure was too much and Michael made a mistake and broke his car. Of course, the man never gives up and continue to race and was driving on the racing line.

Then Hill had to run into Michael and knock him out and as a result Hill broke his car unnecessarily.

The better thing to do would have been to wait and see if Michael can even continue properly after that big collision on the right wall. Then slow but surely overtake Michael as his car is damaged.

Even Murray Walker do not believe that Michael deliberately cause the accident.

I can still remember that Hill had a vengeance accident back at Michael the following year. To me, clearly Hill is the sore loser who can not accept his own mistake and decides to crash into Michael.

FIA sympathetic to Schumi? That is ridiculous! Anyway, JoeHahn has already explained everything.

I think it is clear that the British media is very bias. I do not know if Spanish or German have bias media, possibly that is the case for all different countries.

No matter how much you bad mouth Michael, you can not take away his records nor his ability to drive and win.

In China, he is not called a champion, Hero or the best driver. He is known as THE driving god. It is clear that the Chinese who don't listen to British crap knows better.

[zeus_2011]

Personally i think its still too early to compare (not taking anything away from Hamilton). We have to wait till Lewis actually gets a title (im sure it will be soon) to see how he acts as a champion. That was the thing with Schumi, never rested on his laurels and was always chasing that 2nd, then 3rd, then 4th (till no.7) title. The drive the man had to succeed was amazing (probably leading him to the Dick Dastardly tactics).

Until lewis proves himself in that respect IMO there is no comparison, he has every opportunity (the car, team, skill) to do this but it must be done soon! Until then I think he should keep his tails between his legs and get going with the job in hand!

Obviously the ITV crew are going crazy with Lewis, its the only brit in recent times that has excited fans (brits or not). The same cant be said for any of the others, Hill included, so I say fair game to them.

[dr vinyl]

lots of people here seem to think the media was down on Micheal,
I dont agree..
At the Cataluna GP this year I think there was 150.000 spectaters,
When the camera turned to Alonso as you would expect the crowd went Crazy
But also when the camera turned to Hamilton & when the camera turned to Micheal
the exact same crowd reaction.This reaction was not visible in the case of any other
Driver or Cleb.
Yes its true IMO that the English media is a Huge pile of DUDU.
But this is not caused by ITV its all news paper lies.
As an Irish man I can tell you about something.
If anything is enormusly popular the English Media trys to claim its English
or at least that they have made its popularity posible..
A prime example Is U2,
for many years they worked hard to crack the uk market,
With no help from the media,
and when they became the biggest rock band on the planet they were English.

Theres no way that the English media could make such claim wih regards
to the first & long overdue German WC.
IMO if they cant claim it they will destroy it.

[jorgeez]

I beg to disagree. There's no point comparing Michael Schumacher to Lewis Hamilton. I don't know I just hate Hamilton, he is so full of ego and attitude. Yeah, he can drive, but I really don't like that guy.

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