Rosberg still has upper hand over Schumacher at Mercedes
9 August, 2012
Nico Rosberg with Michael Schumacher
Aug.9 (GMM) Nico Rosberg has undoubtedly had the measure of Michael Schumacher since the seven time world champion returned to the sport in 2010. That is the reluctant view of Sebastian Vettel, the reigning world champion who is so close to Schumacher that the German press still often refer to him as ‘Baby Schumi’.
Throughout most of Schumacher’s initial 16-year formula one career, the great elder German utterly dominated the sport, becoming its most successful driver ever and always standing tall over those at the wheel of sister cars.
But since returning with Mercedes in 2010, it is teammate Nico Rosberg who has shone the brightest in the silver cars, with Germany’s Sport1 pointing out that the younger German has beaten Schumacher in qualifying 36:13.
And in the races, the Rosberg-to-Schumacher points ratio is 308:177, the 27-year-old scoring 5 podiums to Schumacher’s single top-three finish, while Rosberg has a pole and win.
Vettel has to admit that his friend and mentor has been outshone.
“On the one hand you can say that Michael has forgotten nothing and is clearly not struggling, which he has proved very often,” the Red Bull driver is quoted as saying.
“But Nico has done an awfully good job and has usually been the reference [at Mercedes],” Vettel acknowledged.
“There’s no way of talking around it,” he admitted.
Nevertheless, it is strongly rumoured that 43-year-old Schumacher will sign on to remain alongside Rosberg beyond his 2012 contract.
Mercedes chief Norbert Haug recently said that he doubts that “there will be an announcement at Spa” next month, which was widely interpreted as a clear sign that an announcement of a new deal will be made eventually.
Team boss Ross Brawn is hinting similarly, telling F1′s official website this week that Mercedes’ current driver lineup is working well.
He said Schumacher and Rosberg are “very professional, very committed, good attitude, speed, work very well in the team, work well together as a pairing – which is not always easy with drivers – and I believe both are more than capable of winning races if we provide the equipment.”
So why the delay in signing off Schumacher’s 2013 contract?
“I think this is a very important decision for all the people involved,” said Brawn. “We won’t be rushed on the decision and when the time is appropriate we will announce what we are going to do.
“I don’t want to increase speculation by commenting on where we are.”
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- Rosberg: Webber was tougher team mate than Schumacher
- Schumacher and Rosberg uncover the Mercedes AMG W03
- Rosberg apologises to Schumacher
- Rosberg “helps” superstitious Schumacher
you moron Seb
Are you so stupid to think that Schumie came to have fun for all that he is paid just because he said so? I don’t even know why I am arguing with a naive stupid little c..t like you. Do not ever address me fuckin bitch.
absolutely right @disgusted!
If you average the race finishes (excluding DNFs) Schumacher sits an average of 7.4, while Rosberg sits 7.9, hardly a sign of Rossberg dominance. Bottom line: Schumacher has failed to finish 6 of 11 races – 5 of those due to mechanical failures and one shunt caused by rookie defending in a braking zone. There has been no other driver suffering the miss-fortunes of Schumacher this season. Mercedes delivered an ox cart that eats tires, with a fancy DDS widget that has delivered naught, from a team that can’t seem to properly work the wrenches. Interestingly, given he’s only finished 5 of 11 races, he’s still ahead of 12 other drivers, most of whom have finished 11 of 11, in better cars – like Massa. Get Schumacher a good car and team, he’ll win again. Merc is the issue here. The fact that he’s sticking to it is amazing. I would be out the door myself.
@stupid Hawk
schumi did say he came back to have fun. dim wit
that’s what you think. Fortunately you have never been further from the truth. Because if you where then he has no business in F1. Do you for one moment think that Schumie did not come back to win? Is he only a participant? Or on holiday having fun?
not much of an accolade to have the upper hand on yesterdays hero….that said not bad for a 53 year old
upperhand? upperhand? airhead rosberg doesn’t have any wdc to brag about last time i checked. schumi doesn’t give a rat’s butt about being outperformed.
@A41202813.
No problem.
As it should be real racing at it’s best!!!!!!!
Cheers.
AGGRESSIVE RACERS, FOREVER !
Hahaha, Sebastian Bieber, Sebieber goes for the win yeah!
@A41202813
I am 46 born and bread to be an F1 fan.
I think part of my problem with JV was not him more the fact that Craig Pollock also known as (pillock). He had a bad influence on Jacques he almost brain washed him to his way of thinking and with claims that BAR will win everything including the first race.
the other thing was Jacques Villeneuve, stated that when Jenson was to join, He has to prove to me he is worthy.
Again remnants of the Pollock influence.
Schumacher nerds gett’n their knickers in a twist cos Rosberg is better HAHAHAHA love it. C’mon guys calm down…everyone has their time…its 2012, time for WDC’s is over for Schumacher
@McLaren Fan
A – SFW Is A Business Man, He Can Spot Brilliance, Pay It Really Cheap, Turn It Into A WDC And Let It Go When Salaries Reach Sky High – NIGE And JV Come To Mind.
B – I Think You Are Being Unfair To JV ( I Am Not British ).
Yes, His Career Could Have Reached A Whole New Level, But, Even Without A WDC, You Can Not Call Him A Slouch – On Both Sides Of The Pond.
C – The Reds Were My First Love After The Last Laps Of FRANCE79.
I Am 55, What About You ?
Cheers.
@
Snap Williams were the team for me from very small my Dad was the one who gave me the passion for the sport, but I changed to McLaren due to 2 things Frank did. A, Nigel, B, Damon.
Replacing Damon with the pink haired one who needed HHF to help him was the lowest point for me!
Damon against Michael the timing beams at times couldn’t separate the cars. Wheels interlocked through corners that was racing.
Shumachers is not used to driving like this, he wants very fast powerful cars, like in his era, no ‘care for tyre thing’ and i gues prefers some oversteer, i think its more with the rules that he is not comfortable with, cmon he has got everything he wanted to achieve he should give a chance to the younger guyz and leave F1.. !!!! possibly on a positive note with a podium !!!
@Alonsofan glad someone noticed that seb looks so similar to bieber
@McLaren Fan
Just To Be Clear:
I Hate Team Orders, So I Hate Almost Every Top Team, And The Reds With A Passion.
WILLIAMS Is The Team I Have The Most Respect For, Since Ever.
Without Them NIGE Could Have Been Lost In Oblivion, And SFW Always Had A Good Enough Eye On The Other Side Of The Pond – JACQUES, ALEX And JUAN Come To Mind ( Why ALEX Did Not Succeed In His Second F1 Stint Is Beyond Me ).
I Have Respect For A Handful Of Current Drivers, But LEWIS Takes The Cake.
Go, HAMILTON !
@ : Found A New Respect For Him After He Came Back – Respect He Did Not Have Before. “True”.
@ Andy – London : the car is crap you are right 6th is about all it has got.
@ Time For Schumacher To Go : our opinion is not worth what fly’s are always around.
@ AlonsoFan : sebestian Bieber, “NICE”.
@ Kimi4WDC : Agreed.
So votes say Give The Old Boy a car with pace and he will deliver!!
@Time For Schumacher To Go = @USA F1
unearthed.
@luiz, I agree with the part we all had very high expectations of him. This includes himself btw. Little did he know that F1 is a different ball game now. I think he should retire. He will never climb out of the hole he is in. But even then that Merc is a crap car. Even the team keeps on fidgeting with strategy because the car does not allow them to have a proper one. Still IMO he was never as good as we fans made him out to be. He was good nevertheless but not as good. It was the Ferrari team! They had money, inseason testing, custom made Bridgestone tyre, team orders, Rubens…. It was too much.
Schumi should not retire! He is now as brilliant as he ever been…
The only difference is that now he has a real team mate.
The solution is:
fire Nico and bring back Rubens or Verstappen or Irvine or the likes…
I still think Rubens is the ideal candidate! He spent his whole career making his teamates look more brilliant than they actually were…
(not saying MS was not good though, just that he looked better than he really was).
Most of us overrated him…
As long as he enjoys himself, he should keep on driving, he does not lack any speed compare to other drivers.
Mercedes are the ones who should be looking at them self or start lowering their ambitions, cause they have no right to be upset with their drivers.
Car is not fast enough to win and package is not reliable enough to score points consistently.
Michael is daddy of all F1 drivers currently,he has proved everything there is to prove and was the pole position in Monaco luck?? All of RBR fans are just pissed that the sebestian Bieber is bieng beaten by Webber so they are starting to point fingers at Schumi as a time pass.
Everybody plz stop talking about schumi,other wise u will be agnostic,because he is simply the god of F1…
I bet on any other driver who can win 13 of 17 races, 5 consecutive championships and so much more…
NR Must Do A Lot More To Have My Respect.
Say What You Will, The Pole In MONACO Was No Luck.
Yes, The VALENCIA Podium Was Luck.
Yes, Sometimes, Things Fall Into Your Lap.
But You Still Need To Be There To Collect Them – And He Was.
The Oldest F1 Driver Was Almost 60 When He Entered His Last Race.
A Long Career Can Bring A Lot Of Records, And I Hope MICHAEL Waits For Another 18 Years Before He Retires.
Old Geezers, Like Me, Found A New Respect For Him After He Came Back – Respect He Did Not Have Before.
Stay And Show Haters What Resilience Is All About.
no point in comparing the two. and schumi wouldn’t give a rat’s a s s with these criticisms. you just don’t have relevant news because f1 is on vacation. dumb authors!
stats says schumi winning ratio is 3:1 including his last three bad years , he had won 1 race in 3 gp’s. this stat is enough for his critics.
i will still say give him a better car he can win with it. he or any driver cant do anything with this wo 03. if kimi is perform with lotus in the other hand groj is doing better. merc is a bad car from the start of 2010 season
My eyes tell me a different story, especially this year…while Rosberg can be thought of as “quick”….I’m not convinced he can RACE…he has virtually drifted back to midpack or worse way too many times to blame the car..or race circumstances..or the tires..or weather….where’s the fire??
No one in his right mind cares about fools, frauds and their “opinions”. Throughout one hundred and eleven years of Grand Prix Motor Racing since Pau 1901, reality shows three distinct eras where one driver excels above all others. Pre-WWII is known as the Tazio Nuvolari Era, post-WWII until 2003 as the Juan Manuel Fangio Era, and since 2003 (until someone else in the distant future surpasses him) this is the Michael Schumacher Era. In addition, Michael will retire whenever the hell he (and no one else) decides to do so, say, 22 years from now.
@Time For Schumacher To Go
Can you please shut your mouth? Instead of supporting Schumacher, you’re only commenting bad things about him, assh***.. And maybe you should retire from your job, even if you have a job.. Better you don’t work, since you love to criticize Schumi a lot, why don’t you stop working and just retire..
STOP CRITICIZING HIM, DUMBA**
I don’t care I just want Schumi around for a long time.
Podium? The only podium Schumacher has gotten since his return is due to two cars falling out with an alternator problem and two cars crashing without that Schumacher would have finished back in 7th place. That podium was due to pure luck not because Schumacher was racing for it with the other cars in front of him.
Look at the stats in the article. The numbers do not lie, Rosberg has dominated Schumacher for 2 1/2 years now.
Another thing the posts saying if Schumacher has not fallen out of the races this year he would be battling at the top for the championship is nothing more then pure fantasy at best. The fact is the races he has finished when he does not just give up and park his car like the last race, he has not been anywhere near the front runners. Again he got lucky to get that podium for 3rd place as four cars had to drop out in front of him or it would have been yet another one of his 7th place or worse finishes.
I wont even go into his Ferrari days and his special tire built for only Schumacher and his Ferrari while all the other teams had to use a common tire shared among them. I will never buy Bridgestone tires because of that unfairness. Everyone knows those special Schumacher only tires were far better then the tires Bridgestone was providing for the other teams. That is why Schumacher is such a crybaby about the tires this year, he can’t hack it on equal terms.
Retire Schumacher, it is far past your time.
I think if the rest of the season turns out to be more like Hungary than Monaco, Michael should retire.
I agree about the Ferrari comments – Michael seems a little bit too freindly, especially when he smiles after coming 17th. He would have been unavailable for comment at Ferrari.
Just like Tiger Woods in golf – the Schumacher name is healthy in F1 for as long as he is competing at a reasonable level. He has nothing to prove, and his reflexes at 43 are still nothing short of incredible. The pole and the podium has been enough to silence a lot of the critics who said he should go. I believe Mercedes to be about the 6th best car on the grid, behind RB, Ferrari, Lotus, McLaren and Sauber (in no particular order). Being a polesitter and a podium recipient belongs to an elite group of drivers this year, and Michael is one of them.
Every F1 fan has got the right to think & support whoever he/she wants…so to the Schumacher fans…he’s a great driver (one of the very best in history) and certainly in my 45 years as a F1 fan..one of my favourites..!
Stats can say a lot & I’ve done that to compare drivers & Michael is at the top…but stats can also be manipulated in many ways…yes and here starts a new argument!
In the end, this is what makes the sport so great & nice to follow…you can have your own opinion!
I have to agree with Kevin it has been said already that without those 7 mechanical related issues he would be in contention for the title.
I honestly don’t think Schumacher should come back next season. He’s run his course. Everyone gets old, it happens. The new guys are faster and have more fire in their eyes. Imagine these problems happening at Ferrari in his prime. He wouldn’t have been saying “it’s fine, it happens” or anything. He would’ve been up their asses until it was perfect. Now he’s just taking up a racing seat.
the stats man..
we are tired of sentiments.. give stats please.. the article is based on stats..
I hardly think this is the case at all. If you look at Schumacher over the course of the year, I would certainly concede that he has made some “old man” errors and certainly made himself look a bit silly on two or three occasions, but overall I would say he has been qualifying as good if not better than Rosberg this year when he gets the lap in, and his race pace has been perfectly fine…. lets not forget the 7 mechanical related issues he has had in 6 of the 10 races this year.