1). Refueling.
2). Tires.
3). Reflexes.
Well, before I make my case, lets first lets have a look at Schumacher's driving style, compared to Aryton Senna, Herbert, Alonso and Button.
Analytic 1,
Throttle Control
by Damon Hill, Johnny Herbert and Jonathan Palmer. (Video)
In very simple words, Schumacher doesn't lift off much during the corner, but eases off much earlier before reaching it. He also gets on the throttle faster before exiting, and hence carries a faster exit speed out of it. Now in the video Herbert says that Aryton Senna had a similar style, but much more extreme. Senna's foot movement was like an 'actuator', puff puff puff puff, (or a machine gun, rat tat tat tat tat). I can only guess that Schumacher's would be more of a 'drummer', ticka ticka ticka toe.
Analytic 2,
Steering
by Damon Hill, Johnny Herbert and Jonathan Palmer. (Video)
In very, very simple words, Schumacher is putting in much more steering work, because his speed is faster, he has to correct the car's position more.
Analytic 3,
Cornering style
by Martin Brundle. (Video)
Martin compares the driving styles of the three drivers, Schumacher, Button and Alonso, and explains very nicely. However, I'm gonna summarize it in this way.
1). Jenson Button turns the car around a corner like a car. (textbook curve).
2). Fernando Alonso turns the car around a corner like a fighter jet. (as if evading an incoming missile).
3). Michael Schumacher (and Kimi Raikkonen) turn the car around a corner like a helicopter, or rally car attached to a slingshot. (like Batman, the Batmobile in Tim Burton's Batman).
Watch the video in the link to see what I mean. But here's a simple illustration.
From the Video, Brundle says Button turns like putting a spoon through a truffle. Alonso is very aggressive, ugly but effective. Schumacher's is most high-risk, high-effort, high-stress, car is on a knife edge (dancing), like the way Aryton Senna's car dances.
Button's corner.
Button is a perfect, textbook driver. Constant trajectory, no drama, smooth and silky. Easy on brakes, easy on tires.
Constant trajectory, no drama, smooth and silky. Easy on brakes, easy on tires.
Alonso's corner.
Alonso turns the car so hard that the front wheels actually lift off the ground! This way all the force is transferred to the back wheels, the back end sticks to the road (super-downforce), but needs a lot of skill and aim to make this work.
Look at the amount of steering push that Alonso does, as if he's Luke Skywalker dodging an incoming phaser-blast.
Front wheels actually lifts off the ground!
The car turns so much that it even steps over the grass at the apex.
Schumacher's corner.
Schumacher's technique is most difficult to perform and to visualize. However, it is like this. Schumacher uses his front-wheels as a slingshot. He brakes very hard, almost locks his front wheels. If he wasn't so skilled or if someone else tried it, they'd lock their brakes every corner. Now because the front end is stopped therefore the rear end steps out (the car pivots), Schumacher then aims the nose like a slingshot towards the apex, and in a perfect 'symphony-of-motion', the car turns the corner beautifully. Another way to visualize it is like a helicopter, not only does the helicopter turn by pointing its main rotor, it also swivels on the spot by using its tail rotor. Instead of just one force turning the vehicle, there are two forces, thus accelerating the turn. Likewise, not only Schumacher's front tires turn but the back end also slides out, (like a rally car), although its so precise that you can't see it on the TV.
Michael always brakes very hard before reaching every corner. Its on the edge of locking the wheels and maximum braking. With other drivers you will see brake smoke every corner!
As a result, the rear-end steps out (always), and it pivots the car on the spot. That's why they say Schumacher loves oversteery, back-end happy car
Michael then aims the car towards the apex, and let the slide, the turn, the throttle all balance itself out. Without telemetry data it would be difficult to visualize here, but the back end of the car is turning a lot.
Like this.
Or this.
Now! As you see that Schumacher's cornering style is so complicated, it is TOUGH, VERY TOUGH on brakes, tires and skill. He needs very unique set-up for this kind of style (Barrichello could never drive Schumacher's car, they used to say). He also needed a very good car (cars were built tailor-made for him at Ferrari), and he also need very good tires (Bridgestone tailor-made them for him). In this way, it was the perfect package, Schumacher, Ferrari, Bridgestone were able to dominate the sport, winning multiple consecutive championships. Mind you, if Schumacher didn't have the skill, this would not have been possible to start with.
However,
Comeback
The major things (or THE MAJOR THING) that changed when Schumacher cameback was
1). Refueling. Before 2010, the race was a series of sprints between pit-stops. The cars could drive flat-out at low fuel, throw away the tires and flat-out again. This suited Schumacher perfectly, as his style was very hard on tires. From 2010, he now had to cope with heavy cars, lots of fuel, and he could not use that style anymore.
2). Tires. Tires were no longer tailor-made to Schumacher. Even if Schumacher could push one lap and theoretically be faster than Rosberg, the next few laps his tires would be gone! finished. Bridgestone front tires in 2010 were also narrower in size, so Schumacher could not fully use his 'slingshot' style, and Pirelli 2011, 2012 had very poor sustained top-steep.
3). Reflexes. The rest of issues all down to age. He was older, lost 1/100th milliseconds of nervous response time, and that in F1 terms would I guess, mean atleast 0.9s to 1s of laptime.
4). Merc cars were rubbish too... not as fast as 2000s Ferraris or 90s Benetton's. if I may add.
R
T
R
= ReTiRe
OK! Now you guys tell me what you think!
Cheers!
Edited by aliasj, 07 October 2012 - 04:17.
. You seem to have done quite a bit of research into that post, good stuff. Keep it up, I love to read these interpretation of driving styles and the like, even though it might not be entirely accurate as some of the other posters pointed out.
