Originally posted by Todd
Considering that it was at the post race weigh in that he was at his lightlest, there is no evidence to support this theory. If he was light because the lead helmet was misplaced, then the fact that he and his car still combined to exceed the minimum weight would show Benetton to be a bunch of idiots that don't understand arithmetic. Somehow, I doubt that Ross and Michael were the idiots in this anecdote. There is no evidence of cheating by Benetton. There is plenty of evidence of intellectual dishonesty from their accusers, and idiocy from the people that agree with the accusers.
Holiday:
Ok, lets put the record straight, and explain this properly.
The rules in 1995 were different from today.
Then it was not planned that all drivers were to be weighed after every race, but (I think) it was twice a year to establish an ‘official’ weight. For obvious reason this changed after Brazil 1995.
1.“Weight: Any time during Qualifying and immediately after the race cars can be weighed and must not be less than 595 kg including the driver. All the drivers are weighed at the start of the season and their weight is entered into a computer to allow the total to be calculated when the cars are checked without them at the end of the race. Until this year, when the minimum weight did not include the driver, their recorded weight was used to calculate the car's total when the driver was aboard, as in Qualifying. It was desirable to tip the scales as low as possible, and there was no real way to cheat this. This year the reverse is true and so a high official weight for the driver would allow him to race under weight by the amount equal to the difference between his actual weight and his official weight. If the temptation proves to be too great to resist, drivers need to remember that Charlie gets up early - in Brazil he weighed all the drivers who finished........It is now standard practice to weigh them after every race.”
http://www.grandprix...ft/ft00190.html2. So at the first weight check MS was weighed and was 77 KG, an increase of 8 KG from the last race in mid November 1994. This raised question marks from the FIA. It was, he claimed, due to a new fitness regime that had turned his entire surplus fat into hard muscle. There were those, who, given his superb fitness levels of the previous year, found this hard to believe.
3. The advantage of being heavier (officially) meant that his car could be run lighter, that was the motivation.
4. With suspicions aroused, it was decided to weigh all drivers after the race, and, according to Autocourse Schumacher’s weight was now 71.5 KG, some 5.5 KG less than before the race.
5. The allegation, never proven, was that Schumacher had taken an extra heavy helmet to the original weigh-in. He would of course have raced with his normal one.
This was widely reported at the time, and like many controversies was quickly forgotten. But please guys don’t suggest that this is all smoke and mirrors. In the old currency 5.5 KG is more than 12 LBS. Try drinking that before a race and then sweating it off during it.
Roger
PS: I meant the weight of course. 
