Schumacher is going to be a Ferrari consultant for a few years, but is this good?

Yes, he did openly welcomed Alonso, but I think he will still make sure that Massa whom he knows very well will receive preferential treatment.

I suppose that Ferrari when signing Alonso thought that he could become a real team leader, like Michael used to be, at the same time in can't happen because of close Schumacher-Massa tights.

As far as I remember MS also openly welcomed Kimi in 2007, but he still stated that he would help Felipe.

Perhaps, we are about to see another episode of having a star driver in Ferrari with a little bit less support from the team in comparison to his teammate.

I would love to know what specifically MS does at Ferrari.

I think he is more related to the roadcars now...

Wouldn't everyone.

I really don't think this will be the case.

Firstly Michael's own words:



So Michael wanted Fernando to join Ferrari because it would help him better support Felipe and in turn ruffle feathers to the detriment of the whole team then?

Oh well, I forgot it was Michael and not Stefano who ran the operations of the team.

2007 falling out aside, it is pretty safe to assume that this time around with Alonso at Ferrari, expectations have been set in stone and will be followed through with, whatever they may be.

Also, maybe, just maybe, Michael endorsed Fernando as his rightful heir apparent to take Ferrari to the levels he himself took them going forward...

But Luca still wants a 3rd car with Schumi in it. I would love to see that! Notice my avatar!

I don't think Michael objected signing Kimi for 2007. I remember he was quite impressed with Kimi's racing abilities.

From the outside it looks like a weakness in the team management to me. A mixture of sentimentality and weak structure. What do the people with the formal responsibilities NOT know, that Michael does? And how does that fit in with him being around on the pitwall at some races and not others?

Another soppy Montyism, there will be trouble with Michael/Fernando, Michael wanting to be a smartass about Fernando's car and strategy, rejected by Fernando and welcomed by Felipe Baby - all quite good for Mac fans

See that's the thing there, as far as I know, Michael wasn't specifically involved with the decision to bring Kimi to the team compared to now where he says he was 'involved with the decision from the very beginning'.

Michael's opinion certainly carries weight at Ferrari, but how much is up for debate. I just don't think he would have spoken favorably at the inception about bringing Fernando to Ferrari, knowing how strong of a character Fernando is only to end up trying to swing the balance more towards Felipe like you think he will.

If I were Ferrari or any team for that matter, I would not turn down the opportunity to have a 7 x WDC on the payroll as an advisor/token.

I don't know how much of the old crew are still around at SF who were integral to Michael's campaigns, but I see no harm in keeping someone as experienced as Michael around to lend any advice.

Looks like that for me too. Lots of fans on this BB seem to share the opinion that Alonso is good for Ferrari because he will be a good team leader, team builder, but a team that look for a driver to build the team have serious issues and the result if any such "build" would only suit one driver, leaving half of the team out in the cold.

I don't think Kimi and Schumi got along very well and that is one of the reasons why Schumi never found any comfortable position in the team. Maybe Schumi is still a great team builder and want to build a team that is comfortable with? He might be in for a few surprises, specially if he sends out Alonso on rain tyres in the dry

I don't know exactly what it is that he does at Ferrari, but putting rain tires in dry conditions in their cars comes to mind

Seriously though, I do think Schumi's opinions and such carry a lot of weight in Ferrari, and of course, Massa is his little pupil, so, I'm sure that at the very least he will be lobbying for Massa to have at the least equal treatment to Fernando. That in itself will be a stumbling block I would imagine.

He never "stated" he will help Felipe against Kimi. Kimi didn't want his help (despite of that he still helped him BTW in 2007, only from the background, helping to interpret Kimi's data to the engineers) and Felipe did.

But his main task is more in road car development and PR. Ferrari obviously think he is good for them, otherwise they wouldn't have renewed his contract for another three years.

Of course he is good for McLar.. sorry Ferrari, especially if he takes care of Alonsos tyre strategy the whole season

How do you know?

The real problem is Ferrari as not defining clearly enough what MS should concentrace and give him the power to do it. Just working as a consultant for the team is not clear enough. MS can't go on and telling how things are done without mandate. Of course sometimes he'll would get things wrong, but the confidence in the decisions inluence on the determination of the execution. The boundaries and responsibilites for MS should be clearer.

I don't think Schumacher is the self-important smartass that some people here believe him to be. And his way of thinking is definitely not as childish as some people here think, projecting their own way of thinking on him.

He will only help if his help is needed. He definitely won't force himself on Alonso - like he didn't force himself on Kimi.

And if his help and advice won't be needed at all I'm sure he will be content with developing road cars (like he found the most fun in that so far as well) and doing his PR and picking up the money. Who wouldn't?

And all this talk about him pushing out Kimi because he didn't like him or because Kimi didn't like him. That has nothing to do with who likes who. Those guys are more professional than that - including Michael -, don't project your fanboy way of thinking on him. Michael is an advisor. Kimi was obviously not always great, he was very inconsistent during his three years at Ferrari. So if Michael thinks (and he would be not alone with that opinion, would he?) that Alonso is more consistent and would be better for the team why couldn't he say that to the team? It has nothing to do with emotions - and it shouldn't.

There was an interview at the end of 2007 in that he was asked about it and he talked about it.



Now I am asking you: how do you know? People criticize his role without really having a knowledge about how it works.

Ok. So he was working as one of the engineers?



Because nobody, including KR (said in a Finnish interview that he really does not know what MS does there), says what he does. They say he is advisor to the team, which means that really does nothing untill his opinion is asked. There is no clear responsibility -area. I'd guess the drivers would know what he does if it was a clear mandate?

Where did you get that from? I didn't say that.




Well, Kimi didn't seem to care or know about a lot of things that were going on in the team.

MS is an advisor, that's what he is doing. Nobody seemed to have a problem with this role when Lauda was an advisor at Ferrari or Prost was an advisor at McLaren. Now, all of a sudden a definition is demanded for what an advisor is doing exactly.

BTW, MS did say plenty of times what he was doing: his main task is in the road car development area. He is very much involved in that. Of course, he is doing a lot of PR too. In F1 occasionally they seek his advice, but he doesn't make decisions, he is just giving advices, the decisions are made by others.

Its true that Massa is Michaels pupil but I trust Michael is a true professional and will whats best for ferrari, and will do his best to help Alonso where needed. Unlike Kimi, Alonso will welcome Michaels presence, and see it as another tool to maximise his performance. I think its possible there could be some trust issues and tension occuring if Alonso perceives he is not getting equal support from Michael and if Michael and Massa gang up on him. I think thats highly unlikely as I said and would be very unprofessional from ferrari.

I wonder if anybody here believes that Schumacher would have liked if an ex-Ferrari driver
had been around in the team "helping" when he joined them in 1996.
Especially if this exdriver also had his former teammate and now pal in the other car..

He's just an adviser to the team, I mean he might know a little bit about it all eh ? Regarding preferential treatment that's a typically stupid thing to say, Massa is very open in regards to wanting Michael's help as opposed to Raikkonen and Alonso who probably think they don't need his help.
The great thing is that Massa never let his ego get in the way of allowing Schumacher to help him and the result is now a faster driving style. If you look at the way Massa stays away from apexes losing less speed its almost identical to Michael's style. He's even made effective use of the nervous rear end style.

He *doesn't* work or drive for anyone else...

Sounds like a good job, sticking your nose in everywhere you like and then raise both hands if things go wrong. Well, I guess he earned it...

How do you know any of that?

Just because we don't know what he does doesn't mean his position is not well defined within Ferrari.

He is STILL training up to NOW to step in for Massa.

If Massa still doesn't recover, he's their back-up plan ahead of Giancarlo - Alonso/Schumi, how fun will be that? Damn

AMEN TO THAT!
and if he is getting paid however much for his 'support' to Massa, doesn't that technically make Felipe baby the most expensive driver??

Sabotage drivers who are threat to his records?

Which Ferrari driver was a threat to his records?

Ferrari are keeping Michael around so that when the Toad becomes president they can once again get everything they want. Everyone knows how much Gene Toad is in love with Michael and so Michael will have direct access to everything!