Tag Archives: sports

31 October 2006

Schumacher’s driving days over but will stay in F1

Retired World Champion Micael Schumacher will continue in Formula one with Ferrari as an super assistant to support newly appointed CEO Jean Todt who also will remain as an interim MD for the team. Both these decisions were announced by Ferrari at Monza on sunday while Ferrari’s technical director, Ross Brawn will leave Ferrari before the end of this year. In a long anticipated move, Brawn will stand down from his post of technical director to devote more time to his personal life and will hand over his duties to Mario Almondo. But Ross Brawn will hold talks with Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo and CEO Jean Todt in the middle of next year to discuss about rejoining the team and how they feel about how the team’s running. Brawn could potentially rejoin the team as principal allowing Jean Todt to concentrate solely on being CEO.

Even though Schumacher retired officially from racing, lot of media have been spreading rumors that he may be back. The 37-year-old Schumacher retired as a driver after placing his Ferrari to fourth place in the Brazilian Grand Prix last Sunday. Michael Schumacher won a record seven world titles and was with Ferrari as driver from 1996 until he retired. But Micheal Schumacher turned down the offer to become a regular test driver for Ferrari. This was revealed by Italian team’s chiefs Luca di Montezemolo and Jean Todt at Monza at the weekend. Montezemolo, the Ferrari president, said (more…)

23 October 2006

2006 F1 season finale

The 2006 F1 season is over and Alonso defended his World Champion title at Sao Paulo, Brazil by finishing the Brazilian GrandPrix in second. Felipe Massa drove a faultless drive from pole position to take the chequered flag at his home GrandPrix. Ayrton Senna was the last countryman to have won at Interlagos, where Massa grew up. But the day belongs to the F1 legend, Michael Schumacher who demonstrated why he is still the best out there in his final Formula one race. Schumacher, the only man who can deprive Alonso started 10th on the grid after technical problems prevented him from setting a time in important final qualifying. To win an eighth World title, he must win the race, with Alonso failing to score. Even though its tough ask from 10th on the grid, no one dared to rule out the possibility as Ferrari dominated all weekend. (more…)

21 October 2006

BMW pays tribute to Michael Schumacher

BMW and BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen paid tribute to the most successfull Formula 1 driver ever, Michael Schumacher on his final race of his career with Thanx messages.

The most successful driver of all time is retiring, he did a lot for the sport and because of him, especially in Germany, F1 is very popular. As a thank you to Michael Schumacher we have Thanks Michael and Danke Michael on the rear wings of our cars.

In friday’s morning practice, the rear wings of the BMW cars read retirement messages in big blue lettering “Thanks Michael” and “Danke Michael”, in reference to 37 year old Michael Schumacher’s 250th and last Grand prix in an illustrious sixteen year career. (more…)

02 October 2006

Brilliant Schumacher wins the classic Chineese GP

Brilliant Michael Schumacher won the classic Chineese Grand Prix, which can be one of his most important victories in his career. Started 6th on the grid and after 9 laps he was 22 seconds behind the race leader and yet he won the Race that eluded him in the last 2 years. It was Renault’s race to loose and they lost it.

The track was wet with water all over the track at the start but it was not raining. Most of the drivers started with intermediate’s and it was evident from the Saturday’s qualifying that Ferrari and Bridgestone runners struggled in wet conditions. Both the Renaults got to a good start as race begins but both the Hondas lost out to Raikkonen who started at 5th. Schumacher held on to his 6th position as Alonso just vanishes at the front. By lap 4 Schumacher was almost 14 sec’s behind race leader which shows how fast the Michelin runners are. (more…)

11 September 2006

Michael Schumacher retires from Race driving

Michael Schumacher will retire from race driving at the end of the 2006 World Championship. Thats the official news from the Maranello’s Motor Sport Press Office. Check the pdf version of the official release.

I guessed this will be the announcement after viewing some emotional moments just before the podium. For the first time or may be the first time I have seen, Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo jumped the barrier to congratulate his hero Schumacher after the lap of honor. But Schumacher went straight to his co-workers and the president has to wait to get hold of Schumi to give a hug. He then went straight to Jean Todt and his wife for a hug. Wat a moment it was.

Whatever the final result of this year’s championship, Michael leaves Formula 1 holding almost all the records. To date, he has taken seven Drivers’ world titles and has contributed to the same number of team wins in the Constructors’ Championship. He has taken part in 247 Formula 1 Grands Prix (178 of them at the wheel of a Ferrari,) won 90 (71,) been on pole 68 (58) times, setting 75 (52) fastest race laps. He has amassed a total of 1354 points, 1051 of them in a Maranello car. No one in the world of motor racing has done better.

Following his decision, the only record that will elude him is the one for the number of race starts. He will be able to reach the 250 mark, just six short of the record held by Riccardo Patrese.

Schumacher has been with Scuderia Ferrari for eleven seasons, a demonstration of loyalty without equal in Formula 1, to date securing five of his Drivers’ titles here and contributing to six of the team’s Constructors’ titles. No other driver has ever won as much with the Scuderia.

F1 will miss the legend.

11 September 2006

Schumi single-handedly delivers for Ferrari at Monza

Michael schumacher wins the Italian Grandprix at Monza, the Temple of Speed. With Alonso retiring from the race, Schumacher is now just 2 points behind in Drivers Championship, while Ferrari move ahead of Renault in the Constructor’s championship. Ferrari’s future driver Kimi Raikkonen came home second after starting from Pole.

Schumacher almost lost his 2nd place in to the first corner but regained it immediately. Kubica moves to 4th but soon Massa passes him and Alonso in 7th tries to cut the chicane to pass Heidfeld for P6, but was lucky to escape with it. Till lap 16 the order at the top remained same as Raikkonen pits from the lead and the Schumachers stop on lap 17 has got him just ahead of Raikkonen. This was the defining moment and Schumi held on to the lead to win from there. But the main question is where is Alonso and how many points can Schumi take away from him.

On lap 20 Alonso and massa pits from 4th and 6th place with couple of drivers on single stop before them on the track. Nothing dramatic happened yet and it continued untill the second round of pitstop as usual. On lap 39 Raikkonen pits from P2 and joins infront of Kubica and Massa comfortably. A lap later Schumacher pits from the leap for a 7 second quick stop and rejoins comfortably ahead of Raikkonen in 1st place. On lap 40 Massa pits from 5th place and Alonso gets clean air to have a look at Kubica. On lap 42 Kubica and Alonso pits together and they emerge side by side down the pit lane with Alonso holding the lead. Most importantly they both came out infront of Massa which means Alonso has brilliantly managed to get himself into a podium position after his P10 grid slot.

At this point it looked like Schumi gonna cut the lead by just 4 points. But the most defining moment of the race and Word Championship happened on lap 45 when Alonso is out of the race with a mechanical failure. This made Massa who is behind him ran over the chicane amid the smoke from Alonso’s car. If the order stays at it is, Michael Schumacher will close to within 2 points of Alonso in the fight for the Driver’s Championship. Massa pits for tyres as a result and dropped back to 9th place and out of points.

It means Michael schumacher is alone to deliver for ferrari and he starts his final lap with Tifosi erupting all over in celebration already. And the man at the center of attraction all weekend crosses the line to take his 90th Grandprix win. With World Champion and Championship leader Alonso’s car in air held to the crane, Schumacher completes the lap of Honor.

Check the Ferrari’s official website frontpage from before the race, which shows how confident they are about today and the master of speed, Schumacher delivers it perfectly at the temple of Speed, Monza.

Note: The moment Schumacher won the race Ferrari’s official website went down, may be due to heavy traffic with people checking for Ferrari’s and Schumacher’s future decisions.

10 September 2006

Present and future of Ferrari on front row

Kimi Raikkonen, who is going to be announced as Ferrari driver for the next season claimed the Pole Position from Michael Schumacher by just two-thousandths of a second at Monza. The crucial thing is though Alonso’s position, who qualified on 5th position. With two men between Schumi and Alonso and one of them being Massa, it’s gonna be an interesting race for Ferrari and Schumi. And with everyone waiting for Schumi’s future decision and Ferrari’s driver line up for 2007 and beyond, Ferrari has a big day ahead infront of Tifosi. It will be a shock if Schumi retires. Lets wait and see.

26 August 2006

Ferrari on roll at Istanbul as Massa claims his maiden pole

Massa has done it, the first pole position of his Formula One carrer at Turkish GrandPrix. Michael Schumacher dominated saturday’s third and final practice session of the Turkish Grand Prix weekend, but his team mate Massa was the man who beat him in the Qualifying. It looked all day that no one can stop Schumacher and Ferrari this weekend, but Schumacher who was up all the time in Qualifying went mysteriously slow in his final lap of the session to claim 2nd behind his teammate. With Alonso and Fisichella behind Ferrari in the second row, its looks all good for Ferrari and schumacher. Mclaren who looked strong in the previous 3 races had a difficult session with Raikkonen 8th and his team mate in 12th. Ferrari lock out the front row and with their title rivals Renault behind them, it looks like the Race is going to be a fascinating one. As usual, I will try to review the complete Race tommorow.

18 August 2006

Spectacular crash

I have been watching Formula one only from the end of the 1999 season when Micheal Schumacher came back from a leg injury of his high speed crash at Silverstone. After watching almost every race from then, I have started collecting videos of previous years races which I missed. Recently I found this video of spectacular crash at 1998 Belgian Grand Prix where 16 cars crashed. The Formula one archives says only 14 people retired though. But still its a must watch video. Njoy.

07 August 2006

Button wins unbelievable Hungarian GP

Jenson Button did it finally by winning his maiden Formula 1 race on his 113th start at Hungaroring. De La Rosa and Heidfeld also secured their maiden podium for Mc Laren and BMW. The Championship rivals Alonso and Schumacher both retired from the race leaving the Championship fight as it was at last race. Half way through the race it almost looked like Alonso gonna win the race leaving schumacher without any points and with final 5 laps to go, it looked like Schumi is on his way to grab 8 points as Alonso retired. But the dramatic weather conditions changed everything right from the start to the end of the race. (more…)