Schui…Car Breaker?
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Back in the day the term Car Breaker was bandied about quite often. Schumacher’s recent run of reliabilty issues just had me pondering again if this term ever had validity and if so, does it in the current era? Has maybe this great driver developed such a trate, as his driving skills have arguably declined? I don’t know about this case, but I myself despite the staunch denial by those in F1, suspect that this term can sometimes be applicable. Mansel anyone?
I’ve wondered the same thing here lately. Granted, one of his retirements was self inflicted by hitting Senna, but Rosberg hasn’t had near the problems Schumacher has. It’s just strange that it hasn’t been such a big deal until this year, so maybe the car isn’t quiet what is was the past two years reliability wise. Or maybe Rosberg is as great as everyone seems to think >:l
Don’t get me wrong I loved our Nige and I honestly think that Mansell on a charge was the better of any driver ever. It finally took though a, yes complicated, but bullet proof in that he probably didn’t have to push fully to his llimit and switch into charge mode every race to get his dominant wins and seal a Championship. I’m only speculating that for any driver, maybe pushing and charging on and off strains many elements of an F1 car. This of course is very much what is happening in 2012 with stages of tyre protection and then pushing again and then saving the tyres for another charge. F1 cars are so reliable now generally because of the engine and gearbox multi race requirements. I just wonder if it is maybe the Drivers who drive most in bursts like this who are having more reliability woes?
Most of Schumachers problems has been with the DRS, and I can’t really imagine that a driver can be particularly hard on it. Its operated by an on/off switch in the cockpit. It either works, or it don’t. I think Schumacher is just having really tough luck, I really can’t see how he should be able to be so hard on the car to cause this many problems.
These days, I think the tyres mean that the drivers are going at much less then 100% pace for the whole race, so the components will have to take much less stress then normally, but I think car breakers are a real thing.
If I remember correctly Vettel managed to make his brakes stick on slightly in Monza 2010 because he had been attacking the curbs too much, but after a few laps it fixed it self in exactly the same way it was caused.
Hamilton, is probably also quite hard on the equipment, where I think Button and to some extent probably Alonso as well, will be slightly easier on the car.Does anyone have any kind of stats on Schumachers reliability compared with Nico in the first two seasons? I’m not attacking Michael. I’m not a long term fan, I was a Senna man ; but I still just about aknowledge that Shui is the greatest. Just interested if the car breaker idea carries any weight, generally and if there is any possibility that Comeback Michael fits this description, purely as a point of interest. Would still love to see him win another race!
I dont like to sound harsh but there is NO WAY i can accept Michael as a car breaker.
A stat that was featured on the Canadian GP stats article that
he had 4 “race-ending technical failures in the first seven races of 2012 as he did throughout the whole of 2001- 2005 – an 87-races” So whe didnt break many cars in that 5 years!The failures this season
Aus – Gearbox
China – Wheel – Pit error
SPA – Crash – Driver error
Monaco – fuel pressure
Canada – HydraulicsTaking out China and Spain, Human error were left with 3 mechanical failures, On of them being a DRS sticking, How can that be his fault? Taking out the bottom 3 teams only Sauber have even had 2 mechanical retirements in a team.
A point for and point against perhaps but i cant believe a man renowned for his amazing reliability can suddenly be so bad, especially when with the tyres these days meaning the car isnt being pushed as hard and the cars are more reliable than 10 years ago.
And for those who think he intend to break the car, I see only 2 cases where it was plausible. Indeed his crash into the Williams, but looking at the footage it doesn’t seem intentional as we can understand Schum was suprised by the “move back” from Senna and even if they break there are lots of things to do in a F1 car and they are still carrying some speed.
It left the gearbox, that’s a thing a driver can easily destroy if he wants to, but what the point at the first race ?I don’t think we can blame him for trying to pull out the maximum out of the car, even if he doesn’t do it the right way (I mean by that the way the car would like)
I haven’t always appreciated Schum, but I don’t think we can speak of car breaker. Knowing the F1 world, I would be less sceptic about conspiracy (even if I don’t believe it’s the case, or the same question could be asked about mole at McLaren to make them fail pit stops that often … there is always been moles in F1 and probably will, as this is a world of secrets and jealousy, but I don’t think it goes that far but who know)
@Jeanrien Nobodies saying that he intended to- a car breaker is somebody who happens to drive their cars harder than other drivers, subjecting them to too high revs or suspension loadings etc. and therefore more likely to get a car failure.
But even that is an absurd idea, partly because I hardly think it would suddenly manifest itself this year, and partly because not of his retirements are unrelated to being a car breaker.
I doubt it. Other than constant misshifts (forcing the engine to overrev) and kerb/bump-bashing, there’s not much a driver can do to damage a car nowadays.
I don’t think Schumacher overrevs much if at all. He also hasn’t generally (IMO) done much kerb-bashing or bump-bashing. And even then the Mercedes, if you paid close attention, is generally very softly sprung this year, which would make it even harder to break cars over kerbs/bumps, as the added suspension travel absorbs the energy of the kerb-bash.
A far more plausible scenario IMO is if they’ve rotated mechanics this year, or maybe had new hire mechanics, some of who are downright clumsy and/or out of their depth.
For me points well taken on Schumacher. Was never saying he was a Car breaker, just interested in the possibility wether he could be or not. I’m new to this site and am here and want to learn. Throwing briefly back though… Mansell car breaker? People seemed very often sure of this at the time.
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