Comments on: Does Ralf Deserve To Be In F1?

By: verasaki

verasaki — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 00:19:29 +0000

I’ve never undestood how Toyota agreed to his price and forget to put the word “performance” in the contract. Does he “deserve” to be in F1? As much as any other underwhelming driver past, present or future as long as someone is willing to pay for him. Is he worth it? Never has been.

By: Steven

Steven — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 16:30:14 +0000

i work for a japanese company (tho i myself am british), and i can see that toyota’s F1 squad operates in the typical japanese fashion - quite slowly and carefully, with inadequate lines of communication through the hieracrchy, and with no room for critique.

it happens in my company, and it’s a pain. for an F1 team it’s a fatal mis-arrangement, and it’s why Toyota F1 (split between Tokyo and Cologne) so totall cannot get it together, despite throwing so much money at it. the lacklustre Schumacher Jr makes the situation even worse.

By: David Brennan

David Brennan — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 10:13:35 +0000

Ralf Schumacher is my favourite driver, which is why it is so sad for me to have to agree with this report…

He is over-paid and under-performing and I don’t see any reason why Toyota would want to hire him for the next years.
That of course doesn’t mean I don’t want them to sign him though..!

I disagree though with “sidepodcast”s comments, back in the day he was really good and very nearly won a world championship…2001 or 2002….i can’t remember…

Anyway, Long Live Ralf!

By: Oliver White

Oliver White — Wed, 23 May 2007 17:38:21 +0000

@Peter: Welcome to BlogF1! Great comment, and much truth was spoken. Once upon a time Ralf did look good, despite his first poor season in the Jordan. But his talent does appear to have evaporated, and I think Craig hit the nail on the head (in comment 9) when he mentioned a revised pay-scale for any future negotiations. However, I don’t think that will be acceptable to Ralf and his manager. We’ll see what happens later in the year, but I don’t think Ralf will be driving a Toyota next year. Having said that, Toyota aren’t exactly looking great themselves at the moment. The market is currently flooded with youthful talent, so gaining employment for 2008 is going to be an uphill struggle for Ralf.

By: craigblog.co.uk

craigblog.co.uk — Wed, 23 May 2007 15:15:22 +0000

Surely any fresh contract would have to be negotiated on a more realistic pay-scale?

It’s obviously contract-negotiation time as I recently saw Ralf describe himself as in the top 3 current drivers or something equally as delusional!

By: Peter Ekelmans

Peter Ekelmans — Wed, 23 May 2007 10:26:34 +0000

Ralf Schumacher is probably the most disliked man currently driving F1 cars. He’s not really sympathetic or charismatic, just like his brother, and that certainly doesn’t help his reputation very much. Just like his brother before his great successes. And having such a brother who has had so much success has certainly not made his life easier. Being ’someone’s little brother’ is tough. He could have deserved more sympathy.

As to whether he deserves a place in Formula 1, I’m undecided. In the past, he has demonstrated to be a very fast, constant lead driver, who can motivate his team and contribute much to the development of the car from the moment he landed at Williams. He was probably Michael’s strongest opponent in the days Michael didn’t really have any. He was generally on pace with the gifted but less consistent Montoya and has had a more than fair share of bad luck throughout 1999-2004.
When Williams decided to build a car specifically for Montoya in 2003, it was Ralf who contributed much into getting the car back on track, and driving it, he became Michael’s closest contender half-way the season. Was it not for bad luck in Monaco, Canada and the last 6 races of the season…well, what?
In 2004, Ralf had more bad luck, ruled out with an injury for almost half of the season, and never regaining his pace in a team that was falling apart on all sides (Patrick Head, Berger, BMW, JP and Ralf were all unhappy with each other).

In 2005, he still showed that he was a very capable driver, but within the poorly managed and bureaucratic Toyota team, he’s slowly rotten away. If this is what is left of his talent, than its time for him to quit. If there is a second youth for him, he may just earn himself another 6 years.

By: Jacky

Jacky — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 16:53:35 +0000

It seems like Toyota are pouring their money down the drain . To pay ridiculous amount of money for a third rate driver at best is illogical bordering on insane .How anyone managed to justify this at Toyota is a mystery . They would gain much more publicity by donating this money to charity as their performance in F1 is substandard .

By: Alianora La Canta

Alianora La Canta — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 22:31:49 +0000

If Ralf Schumacher wants to have a contract for 2008 and beyond, then he will have to sort out his inconsistency problems. If a driver can only be relied upon to put the car where it is capable of being for a third of the time, then it will be difficult for Ralf to persuade Toyota (or anyone else) to keep him on - even if he is faster than Trulli in the third of races when he’s racing at his best.

By: sidepodcast

sidepodcast — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 20:24:22 +0000

eddie had the right one briefly.

he’s a waste of space. he doesn’t seem to be taking the team anywhere. he’s going backwards faster each and every race.

pull the plug and bring in some new blood.

By: Oliver White

Oliver White — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:58:30 +0000

Oooo, the knives are out now!

I would probably have to agree though. Ralf only got the drive because Eddie Jordan knew how to play the media. McLaren didn’t want him after his test there, and nobody had heard of Fisichella, even though he had already driven in six races the year previous. Eddie needed a headline name, and you don’t get anymore headline than Schumacher.

Just a shame it was the wrong one.