Why has it taken this long for Rubens to wake up?

Raoul Duke · 1 Oct 2001, 06:49 (Ref:154116)

All season long Rubens performance in that Ferrari could be described as average at best. But then all of a sudden in Monza he seems to turn on his engine(configuratively speaking of course) and drives like a man who's worthy of winning races and championships. And he backs it up by another impressive performance today at Indy. So we know that he has it in him to be competitive, but why does it take him untill now to finally show that, where the hell was he during the first 14 races of the season. Could it be that, like Coulthard, he suffers from the inconsistency bug?.

drexel · 1 Oct 2001, 07:44 (Ref:154132)

He hasn't woken up...Michael's just gone to sleep since the season was over for him at Hungary....He raced Spa so he could get the record at his favourite track. Wait till 2002 when the war begins again.

**Stephen Green** · 1 Oct 2001, 08:58 (Ref:154147)

You could also be forgiven for thinking that now TGF has won the Championship they have 'equal' machinery?

BootsOntheSide · 1 Oct 2001, 09:35 (Ref:154154)

I think Michael hasn't mentally been on it of late, at Monza he was a subdued figure and clearly didn't want to race, hence his attempted agreement to go easy at the start. Plus Ferrari resources are now focused on Rubens as Michael has got the job done.

**Stephen Green** · 1 Oct 2001, 09:45 (Ref:154158)

Now that DC has a 7 point lead over RB it looks unlikely that he will finish 2nd in the WDC. Ferrari's objective was to get 1 and 2 in the WDC and the constructors title, in other words a 'clean sweep'.

R3d · 1 Oct 2001, 09:46 (Ref:154160)

Quote:

Originally posted by Stephen Green
You could also be forgiven for thinking that now TGF has won the Championship they have 'equal' machinery?

Why, why, why oh why would a team which has access to millions of dollars, superlative engineering excellence, experience and heritage purposefully give one of their drivers a lesser car for the start of the season when everything is up for grabs, and then decide to give him an 'equal' car after they've acheived almost everything they want to?

Illogical and conjectural.

**Stephen Green** · 1 Oct 2001, 10:50 (Ref:154178)

I agree, but who ever said Ferrari are logical?

We all know that Michael is the undisputed No1 at Ferrari and that the No2 would be extremely unlikley to be allowed to win the WDC. You only have to look as far back as the partnership between TGF and Eddie Irvine to see that there was no way Irvine was going to be allowed to become the first Ferrari driver to win the WDC since Jodi Schecter.

In any other teanm I would have agreed with your comments, but we are talking about Ferrari here. Nuff said.

R3d · 1 Oct 2001, 11:31 (Ref:154197)

Quote:

We all know that Michael is the undisputed No1 at Ferrari and that the No2 would be extremely unlikley to be allowed to win the WDC.

So what if Michael suddenly started underperforming and was uncompetitive? Would Rubens be not allowed to try and win the WDC if he was within reach?

I don't think Ferrari do anything different to any other team. Hiding behind the 'illogical team' argument is circular logic. Illogicality (new word

) does not lead to successive constructors championships. It would be more sensible to say that whoever is ahead in the points after the first race of the season would be the one who is the default #1 driver until the other can overtake them in the points chase.

Piquet · 1 Oct 2001, 12:06 (Ref:154212)

Quote:

Originally posted by R3d

So what if Michael suddenly started underperforming and was uncompetitive? Would Rubens be not allowed to try and win the WDC if he was within reach?

I don't think Ferrari do anything different to any other team. Hiding behind the 'illogical team' argument is circular logic. Illogicality (new word ) does not lead to successive constructors championships. It would be more sensible to say that whoever is ahead in the points after the first race of the season would be the one who is the default #1 driver until the other can overtake them in the points chase.

Based on the Irvine situation I believe if MS is fit & well - the No.2 driver will NOT be allowed win the WDC - crazy but true!!

**Bononi** · 1 Oct 2001, 12:11 (Ref:154214)

As long as Michael stays at Ferrari, he's the #1.

Airhead · 1 Oct 2001, 12:12 (Ref:154215)

Yep Michael sucks hard - and so do Ferrari.

But Rubens is as useless as Ralf. Only friendlier.

R3d · 1 Oct 2001, 14:46 (Ref:154256)

Quote:

Yep Michael sucks hard - and so do Ferrari.

Wow you do have high standards for results... what does he / they have to do to not suck? Win every single race? I'm assuming using your apparent logic that every team this year must suck even harder given how far behind they are. Harsh.

Red · 1 Oct 2001, 15:14 (Ref:154267)

Quote:

Originally posted by Piquet

Based on the Irvine situation I believe if MS is fit & well - the No.2 driver will NOT be allowed win the WDC - crazy but true!!

Would you care to ellaborate a little bit? It’s kinda confusing you know. :confused:

RussianFriend · 1 Oct 2001, 15:59 (Ref:154303)

It's seem that equal drivers are myth of F1. Do you remember many cases when the driver from 2 horses team won WDC.

Don't mention Mika, David wasn't equal. Don't mention Damon, Jacques was the rooky and wasn't treated the same way.

When a team promises the equal equipment and team's support, it better case it means "We'll try to treat them the same way", in worse one - "One of them won't get the same equipment, but he should think he will".

R · 1 Oct 2001, 17:06 (Ref:154350)

Quote:

Originally posted by Stephen Green
You could also be forgiven for thinking that now TGF has won the Championship they have 'equal' machinery?

You took the words right out of my mouth. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Rubens now was the one who got the "preferential treatment" from Monza and onwards the rest of the season. There's no way he could be that competitive compared to TGF otherwise. And TGF said himself that he would help Rubens as much as he could once he had the title in the bag. I wouldn't be surprised at all if this was the case.

**Stephen Green** · 1 Oct 2001, 17:45 (Ref:154374)

Exactly R...

paulzinho · 1 Oct 2001, 19:17 (Ref:154419)

I think its simple. Rubens has got the full attention of Ferrari and has benefitted psychologically from not having to defer to Michael.

I think he's showing that he deserves his place in F1, lets hope it carries over into next season.

BBKing · 1 Oct 2001, 19:35 (Ref:154432)

Quote:

Originally posted by AMoffat
Yep Michael sucks hard - and so do Ferrari.

But Rubens is as useless as Ralf. Only friendlier.

.

LOL
I think Barrichello should be driving on 2 stops all the races. He seems to do better that way....LOL

Having said that. It is also true that Schumacher is sulking at the present moment. He has been shaken by many things including Formula Juan's habit of pulling out great moves on him.

I also agree that next season will bring back thing to what they were at the begining of this one. Schumacher is number unique at Ferrari and Barrichello has to play he role of slave testing new components during the races until is no longer important for Schumacher. Is a winning way of doing things but not necesarily fair or sportive.

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