Some thoughts on F1 and Michael Schumacher

First of all I think I'm not a hardcore Michael Schumacher fan, I mean, I don't have Schumacher related stuff at home.. caps, autographs etc as a matter of fact I don't have any F1 material at home, so I don't consider myself as a hardcore F1 fan either, but I like Michael Schumacher and especially "since the internet" I can download the BBC coverage to watch their interviews with him. It's a shame really that these media stuff is so restrictive in the world.. I mean many people would even pay for some stuff but it's simply not available outside a specific region. Here (Romania) even iTunes doesn't provide the full services, only the app store available here, no music, no shows nothing else.



Before 2011 I used to watch F1 on the hungarian channel (rtlklub), F1 was available on the romanian network (tvr1) too, but I preferred the hungarian channel though, in 2010 I also downloaded the BBC qualifying+race+forum coverage and watched that too.

Since 2011 the romanian coverage moved to a new channel(s) (digisport 1+2, also "digisport hd" which mirrors digisport 1). I needed to buy a HD set-top-box (it's connected to my 24" LG monitor) to able to watch in HD, the cable provider (rcs-rds) ran out of them and they are not in a hurry to provide them. I watch the practice sessions live (sometimes they broadcast it delayed), the qualifying and race in HD live, after that I download the hungarian coverage and the BBC coverage and watch them too.

So about Schumacher, I was quite happy when they announced that he will be back, I can't really decide if it's good that he joined Mercedes or not, I mean if he'd joined Ferrari I think the expectations would have been more higher for him, but maybe a better car, of course we will never know how would he had perform there, but we naturally expected more from him and Mercedes in 2010.. especially because in 2009 Brawn GP won the championship although we knew that they ran out of money and couldn't invest/develop that much in the 2010 car, either way we would have loved to see him on the podium once at least. To be honest to me Mercedes per se is not a "sportscar firm", I like Mercedes road cars.. they are exceptional but bloated... In sports they rely on the engine too much, they have a very good engine but not much a aerodynamic package, no wonder why the Mercedes engined cars have the top speeds, only McLaren is able to make a good package of it.

In 2011 I think that he made a quite good effort.. except in Valencia 17th place? I just can't understand what happened there.. I hoped that he could climb up at least to 10th place. In Canada everything was crossed in the room to force out that 3rd place... I hated very much DRS in that race. In Silverstone he managed a very good recovery quite the opposite of Valencia.

I'm really sorry for those biased people who criticize you and praise other drivers based on same mistakes/problems, don't want to name names but for example when Michael crashes into somebody or leaves the track they say that "lost talent" "too old" so on, when Vettel, Hamilton does the same they say that they "trying the limits of the car/tyre" or "they are aggressive drivers we like that"..

The bottom line is that it's good for fans, business, sport that Michael Schumacher is back.

The photo is courtesy of www.mercedes-gp.com they have live data during the sessions!

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PS: I want to thank BBC for their exceptional coverage, I sincerely hope that they will continue that in the coming year

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