2012 - 5th
2013 - 2nd
2014 - 1st (in all likelihood )

Obviously Lewis didn't design the car or hire the people, but his arrival and 2013 performance must have been a massive motivator plus the car can't be developed as well as it is without a solid consistent driver to feedback.

Of course if you're just picking holes at my use of the word 'fact' I'm not here for a grammar lesson

 

I'm not denying their progression but how much a single driver influences that varies greatly. Perhaps I've missed it, but is there a suggestion that he's particularly good at the development side of being a driver (compared to the others on the grid)?

I don't doubt that he's fast and that Mercedes are doing well. I'm not sure I can attribute their rise to Lewis as much as you are though. It's all opinion. I still think that Alonso is the best all-round driver on the grid, but there are plenty of people who aren't a fan of him.

 

I think my point has been skewed slightly. The percentage of credit a driver deserves for the success of a team is obviously wildly debatable.

But Schumacher is often given credit for being a driving force bringing Ferrari back to winning championships and part of Alonso going to Ferrari was no doubt with a vision to take the team back to winning ways.

After 4 seasons the team still hasn't matched his personal performance with the machinery his racing and mind game talents deserve.

Were Lewis to be as big a mind game player as Alonso he'd have an ace up his sleeve with the turning a teams fortunes around. Oh and the beating him in a rookie season

Alonso still has until the end of this season to throw being a double champ at him though, and probably until the end of next year for being a back to back champ

I respect Alonso a great deal as a racer, the sheer statistics he has of finishing either where the car deserves to or higher is surely unmatched. But his mind games get tiring.

 

If you watched the Eddie Irvine interview on the telly, he described Schumacher's testing and setup ability as "shocking". Barichello was apparently a great test driver, and that's what led more to Ferrari's domination. Schumacher, however, could make the difference in an under performing car. Having Jean Todt and Ross Brawn probably didn't hurt either.

Lewis Hamilton said the other week that this was the first time he'd had a car designed for him (which must make Rosberg a bit miffed). I don't know how much the driver really affects the development of the car, but clearly there's an element of favouring one driver over the other. Adrian Newey probably didn't waste much time making cars to suit Mark Webber.

 

Never been a fan of Irvine and wouldn't take his word as gospel. Schumacher would still put the miles in testing things, maybe his feedback wasn't the best but lap times don't lie.

The driver helps on two fronts. Verbal feedback which in this age of telemetry is more for making the car suited to the drivers preference.

And delivering the lap time. If the engineers think a tweak or new part is worth hundredths or even thousandths of a second it takes a special driver to drive that consistently that they get true data.

Looking at the downturn at McLaren and upturn at Mercedes happening even before Paddy Lowe left Lewis would seem to make a big impact.

 

Seems unlikely though?

http://www.f1today.net/en/news/schum...cognising-wife

 

Love to believe it to be true.

Schumi was an arrogant racer and no doubt a dedicated driver and ruthless when he had to be. He set the modern model for fitness and dedication to all the detail. Personally I like the kart racer mentality that Lewis still has not yet had ground out of him, witness the superb racing with Nico we saw in Bahrain. Can't see Schumi or Vettel racing their co-drivers so cleanly on the edge with no dirty tricks.

 

Schumacher was an exceptionally difficult driver to pass even in his second career though like you said often stayed into downright dangerous tactics.

I can't think of a good example of defensive driving from Vettel. On the attack he is relentless but I'm struggling to think of an example of him holding a faster car off.

 

I heard time and time again that Schumacher would spent countless hours in testing and setting up the car etc. That's why they brought in regs to have limited testing. He was one of the best etc
Rubens was not.

 

Maybe, but he was there and is qualified to know, unlike I suspect the many people who have sort of told Aston things.

Irvine was typically gushing over Schumacher's abilities as a race driver. As he put it you either need a Newey, to get the best car and win with an average driver, or you need a Schumacher or a Senna to make the difference in a car that's not quite as good.

I thought The Last Teammate documentary was very good, as the start of "Senna week". A bit of a shame they managed to show the wrong classic race after it. Doh!