Michael Schumacher: A Sort-of Appreciation

Naughty, naughty...

Formula 1 needs a villain, and for the last 20 years it has – for me – been Michael Schumacher.

An undoubted genius, he always seemed to be the man beating drivers who I supported: Damon Hill, David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen.

But it was because he was so skilled that I hated him. “It’s getting boring, him winning everything”, I complained, deep down knowing it was only jealousy.

I mean, how dare one man so consistently win in a sport that is supposed to feed off chaos, crashes and unpredictability?

Not that Schumacher was a saint, of course. Parking his Ferrari to ruin Alonso’s pole position lap at Monaco ‘06 had me on my feet screaming for him to be banned. And the less said about Australia ‘94, the better.

Meanwhile, his air-horn-bearing fans did little to endear themselves to me; remember the 'Kill Hill' T-shirts?

Then he retired and Alonso stepped up as the pantomime villain, winning lots and following Schumacher to be the anointed one at Ferrari.

And then Schumacher came back and – to my own surprise – I was happy about it.

Sufficient time had passed for me to respect him as the super-talented driver he was and I wanted to see him race against Lewis Hamilton and an invigorated Jenson Button.

But, of course, the last 3 years have borne no fruit and these days he has to make do with chasing one or two points on a Sunday afternoon.

Retiring (again) is the best possible thing he could have done; let’s remember the man for a great – if flawed and occasionally dangerous – driver while he’s not some embarrassing old fool, pointlessly bumbling around in an HRT.

A F1cking Disgrace

It's a huge weekend for Formula One, whether you give a damn about it or not.

The teams will meet to decide whether this year's race in Bahrain on April 22nd will go ahead or not, with the smart money on it being cancelled for the second year in a row due to ongoing civil unrest.

One argument in favour of the race going ahead is that cancelling it would deprive the economy of millions of dollars and would, therefore, be bad for the 'man on the street'.

The same 'man on the street' - one presumes - whose human rights have been consistently denied by an oppressive regime, and whose fellow countrymen have been convicted in unfair military trials.

One of the most persuasive voices in the debate is former Formula One champion Damon Hill who told the BBC that: "My concern is really that F1 is perceived to be indifferent".

There's an easy way to solve that perceived indifference: don't bloody go.

F1 needs to realise it doesn't exist in its own bubble; for example, the current F1 calendar includes FIVE countries - a quarter of the entire calendar - where being gay is illegal.

The sport has an impact like no other in terms of worldwide reach and appeal, and should be working it arse off to benefit the people who keep it alive, who watch in their millions, and who feed its greedy commercial fire.

So it's a big weekend for Formula One. It has the chance to show dickhead regimes that it's not right to kill, detain and torture people - and show the rest of us that it cares. A bit.