Newsgroup: it.sport.formula1.moderato
Titolo: [ENG] - Schuamcher

From Timothy Collings 'Schumacher', 1995
'The first time I remember seeing him was at the Silverstone south circuit
on the Tuesday
before the Belgian Grand Prix - in the test,' recalled Jordan's Commercial
Manager Ian Phillips.  'He was mind-blowing. I'd done a lot of testing at
the south circuit, particularly when I was with March. We were the team
that probably used it the most. There is what I consider to be an
incredibly dangerous left-hand kink where you stand up to do the
signalling and, from there, you can judge whether someone is doing a good
job by how early they brake for that kink. Schumacher went through it flat
on his fourth lap and it was the most terrifying thing you've ever seen in
your life. I said to Trevor [Foster]: "Call him in, slow him down.' He
said: "You tell him, you tell him, this man's something special." I did
exactly that. Twice more during the test Trevor had to call him in to slow
him down.' 
Trevor Foster:
'So we went over there and off he went, almost literally. After about six
or seven laps, he was flicking the car through a chicane and I had Weber
with me and I said "This is the race car and it must be ready tonight at
four o'clock and we've got to reach the start so we have really got to
calm him down a bit." So, we brought him in, sat him down and said "Look,
you've got to support me on this. There is plenty of time . You are only
22 years old. You've  got a long way to go." And he said "I do not
understand what the problem is. I am in  control." I mean, he never looked
out of control. But he looked, for a young guy, with only six  laps behind
him in an F1 car for the first time, he looked, well, I mean we were
flabbergasted. And he did the same thing again in another 10 laps or
whatever it was. It was  just a natural speed that he had all the time. We
ended up doing 20 or 25 laps and it was so natural to him. We called him
in 3 times! So, we stopped after those early laps and it was incredible
because he had been so quick, as quick as we had ever been around there.'
 (Trevor) Foster was just as amazed as everyone else the following
weekend. `We went to Spa and I said "Have you ever driven round this?" and
he said "No." I said "Well, we has  better wait for Andrea and I will get
him to go round with you in a road car and show you  round the track. I
got some notes from the year before, from the F3000 race, and we worked
out the gears we were going to go for and, for some reason, Andrea was
late. I think he was  talking to Eddie about negotiating his contract and
he got into sort of a wrangle and in the end Michael said "Don't worry, at
six o'clock I will go round on my bike." So, off he went. Afterwards, I
told him to wait and when Andrea and Eddie were finished, I will make sure
they give you a run round later. Anyway, it got later and later and later
and it just never happened and he said "Don't worry, before it gets dark,
I will go round again on my bike" and he did. Then he came back and said
"Don't worry. I'll see you tomorrow."  `He turned up in the morning and
was immediately on the pace. I cannot remember exactly, but he was so
self-assured and so fast. One of the things which impressed me was his
control. Normally, when you get a young guy like this, one of the
difficulties is to restrain them. They get super carried away with it all,
you know, and Spa, which has one or two very dangerous spots, left us
quite worried. About him. And I said to him "Michael, are you sure you are
not driving over the edge?" And I always remember him saying to me "No,
I'm not over the edge. I am on the limit, but I am not over the limit."
That was it. And what happened was that Andrea was not happy with his car,
so he jumped into the spare and part way through the session, we developed
a water leak on the water pump, which meant the engine had to be changed.
I said to Gary (Anderson)"Can we use Andrea's car to get the laps up?" and
he said "Yeah, no problem , Andrea thinks the spare car is better anyway."
So we put him in Andrea's car and he immediately passed Andrea. He ran
that car until the end of  the session and then we changed the engine and
he went out in qualifying and at the end of  it, he had obviously done a
really good job and we were all very impressed.  `There were some very
interesting points, again, which struck me. One was that on a  particular
part of the circuit, Andrea was in a quandary. If he kept it in fifth gear
all the way  through the section, the car got very high on revs and very
nervous. And he said "If I try it in  sixth then, likewise, the car bogs
down." He was talking about the bit where the track comes down from the
top of the circuit, where you come into the first one in fifth and then
take the second part of it in sixth and, obviously, to change gear in the
middle of it was difficult--I  said to Michael, in the debrief: "Do you
have the same problem?" He said "Well, I did for three laps and then I
realized that what I do is go into sixth gear and I just left-foot brake 
and it steadies the car in the middle and then I just take both corners in
sixth." And he had  not even mentioned it. He had just worked it all out
for himself. For him, it was perfectly natural. He was simply driving the
car.  `There was no issue. He had not come in and said "Look, I've found
this problem or that. And  there was no mention of anything at all. As far
as he was concerned, it was the fastest way to get the car round those two
corners. He had worked out all the other options and none of them were
ideal. But this was the best compromise. There was also another bit,
coming back to the "Bus Stop" chicane, the two very quick left-handers,
which was interesting. If you look at the section times, he was very quick
there. Although he was in the top seven or eight all the times, he was
always about second or third quickest. Andrea was unhappy with that
section in his car. He said that "As you lift, just as you turn in, it
gets a bit unsettled on the bumps", and I remember I talked to Michael
about it. "Yeah" he said. "But it is ok if you just drive it flat. The
lift actually destabilizes the car and if you keep it flat it's ok." Sure
enough, it was.'
 This is Gerhard Bergers description of his first days at Benetton in
1996, from his book "Zielgerade". (Translation into english by me, hence I
am responsible for all errors)
But before it came to the first massage in the Benetton motor home, I
already threw away the world  championly car. The car had simply gone off
- and away it was - faster than I could watch. It was at  the first test
in Estoril and the crash was that terrible, that we had three days delay,
because they  had to send the car to England. All laughed and patted me on
the shoulder "hey, your first Benetton crash" as if it was a good omen. It
rained when the repaired car came back, we waited but then decided to go
out in the rain just to get a bit more familiar with the car.
In the third lap it went off with the backside head-on into the armcos.
Again scrap. The laugh from the first crash was a thinner grin now. My
team mate Alesi waved goodbye as often as me but had always a free run-off
area while spinning, so he didn't demolish anything. The next test was in
Barcelona. I started the thing very calm and analytical. Like at the first
Estoril day I had no bad feeling with the car. There was just a full
second missing, so I had to close up on the limit. Next crash. Of course,
this one was nothing but embarrassing, and I could read a certain desire
for Schumacher in the faces of the engineers and the mechanics.  The
thought exchange with my new boss wasn't fruitful too. Flavio Briatore
swept away all issues with terrific superficiality. He may talked about
technics, but while he talked you had the suspicion he couldn't
distinguish between a steering wheel and a car wheel. He has absolutely
nothing of racing in his blood, he simply lives for marketing, preferrably
his own.    
The most solid component was the Renault engine at the height of its
maturity. The performance of  the frenchmen was a modern translation of
the Honda leadership in the previous generation. They  were not simply
obsessed with power and revs, but had a very fine feeling for the
driveability of the engine in the farest way. They also had a lot of
sporting mind, by far exceeding technics and statistics of success. In any
case the engine was not the problem. To our chief engineers I said
something like "I went off  three times now and accept the blame, but it
should be clear to you that the car has a problem and it would be nice if
you could turn on your computers once more". The mystery indeed could be
encircled. On bumps while at full speed the car went "in stall", like an
aircraft which abruptly loses all its aerodynamic effect. If the bump was
in a fast corner the car could  go into snap oversteer. This feature of
the Benetton was certainly not unknown. Johnny Herbert went off a few
times in 1995 and then simply didn't dare to step at this limit. And
Michael Schumacher had something like a supernatural reflex for this
situation. He later explained it to me: He automatically anticipated the
countersteer on the bump, he had already memorized this procedure in
himself.  This was the point where I couldn't stay reserved against
Michael Schumacher: Someone who had the sovereign knack on this car even
at the limit must have been absolutely in a class for himself."
Some pages later he said with regard to his little feud with Michael he
had at that time:
"The final point of return came when I took over his car, the Benetton
from the end of the 1995 season. I thought 'oh my god, he won the world
championship with this car!' That simply wasn't a car in which you win a
world championship, this could be managed only by someone really special.
Then I knew the guy was alright and didn't hesitate to tell this everyone
who wanted to hear it." 
-- 
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From F1Racing 99 January
Trevor Foster: 
He did another 3 or 4 runs and he was treating it like a toy. Braking
late, flicking it through. Effortless. Thats the word you have to use:
effortless. The car looked loose but in control. When he did overstep the
mark, he corrected it immediately. And there wasnt a single over-rev of
the engine....
The next intresting thing was that Andrea was unhappy with the setup of
his car because something was happening over the bumps. He got out of his
race car and into the spare.
MSs car developed a water leak, which meant removing the engine, so I
asked if he could use Andreas race car. ... Straightaway he did a lap
quicker than he had done in his own car, and quicker than Andrea had done.
We sat in the debrief at the nd of the day and Andrea  was going on about
a couple of bumps on the very fast section into Bus Stop. He said that the
car was very nervous there. MS didnt say much. He just sat there. I asked
him if he had the same problem. He said " I did for a couple of laps
because if you lift off, the car is nervous" - It was one of those places
which was marginally flat. - "But then I went flat and it was okay" Andrea
just looked at him, he couldnt understand it. "There was another place -
coming down the hill, the two left handers (EDIT: Pouhon) - which Andrea
said he couldn't  take in 6th, and if he took it in 5th gear, the car was
nervous again. I asked Michael if he had this problem. He said "Yes for 3
or 4 laps I had exactly the same problem, but what I did aftre that was go
through the first left hander in 5th, hit 6th in the middle amd then left
foot brake. That calms it down for the next corner" Andrea looked lost.
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