Michael Schumacher stripped of pole in Monaco

[knight23]

from www.formula1.com

Schumacher is stripped of pole

28 May 2006

Michael Schumacher has been moved to the back of the grid for the Monaco Grand Prix after stewards concluded that he deliberately blocked the track in the closing stages of qualifying, preventing rivals from beating his time.

The decision - which came eight hours later - means Renault’s Fernando Alonso will now start from pole position with the Williams of Mark Webber alongside him. Schumacher is demoted to the back row, where he will join Ferrari team mate Felipe Massa, who crashed out of qualifying without setting a time.

Schumacher appeared to lock his brakes and then run wide as he entered the final Rascasse corner in the dying moments of the session. The former champion regained control without hitting the barriers, but came to a halt with his stalled car partially blocking the circuit, forcing other drivers to slow down.

Following the session, the stewards heard evidence concerning the incident from Schumacher - who claimed it was a genuine error - as well as Ferrari personnel. They also reviewed video footage and data evidence supplied by the team and the FIA.

Their finding was that Schumacher had no justifiable reason for braking so hard, as he had been traveling little or no quicker than at the same point on previous laps. They therefore concluded that he deliberately stopped his car on the circuit, an infringement of the sporting regulations.

As punishment the stewards deleted all of Schumacher’s qualifying times, hence his move to the back of the grid, from where he has little or no chance of taking a record-equaling sixth Monaco Grand Prix win.

Ferrari’s Jean Todt expressed the team's displeasure at the stewards' findings, saying: “We totally disagree with it. Such a decision creates a very serious precedent, ruling out the possibility of driver error. Michael was on his final timed lap and he was trying to put his first place beyond doubt, as could be seen from the fact that his first split time was the best and could have seen him do another very good lap. With no real evidence, the stewards have assumed he is guilty."

The FIA will publish the grid in full as usual on Sunday morning.


video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb0tyPCGWKY

judge for yourself...

[nugundam93]

hmmmm...ouch. i'm sitting on the fence on this issue.

[Monseratto]

Kawawa naman si Schumi. Talagang mahirap sa Monaco mag qualify if sabay-sabay silang lahat. Its much better if individual runs like last year. Pero you just have to look Schumi's previous underhanded tactics to see some reason to it.

[BoyFerrari]

The Anti-Schumi View:
If Formula 1 history was not cluttered with many Michael Schumacher dirty driving moves, he might have gotten away with this Monaco debacle. But we know Schumi's dirty past. I'm a big fan of Ferrari and Schumacher, but while I was watching the last seconds in this Monaco Qualifying, I jumped out of my seat and immediately couldn't believe he did that on purpose. It was amazing! For a Ferrari and Schumi fan like me, I couldn't believe he parked that car in exact precision the way it ended in the curve. It was almost like billiards and he placed that car on a strategic position to prevent opponents from getting a clean shot.

The Pro-Schumi View:
When a person commits a crime, there must be a motive behind it. Especially if the crime is done infront of millions of witnesses. But why would Schumacher cheat here? 86 GP wins, 7-time World Champion, 67 Pole Positions, and 5 Monaco Wins -- all to his name. Why would he cheat now? We are not even half-way through the season for Ferrari to press the panic button. It is very easy to conclude cheating when watching the slow-motion replay. But when you are in the cockpit of that car at 186 mph around the bend, what happened was just like any other driver error.

[biboy28]

kaaiba ito ah.. kung san sya naghahbol..

[empy]

ehehe....this is very interesting. first off, michael schumacher is waaay too good to completely blow a turn like that. i think even i might have taken that turn better (at least my project gotham alter ego would :lol: ) and at least wouldn't have stalled out like that. sa monaco pa naman where it's next to impossible to pass.

it would have had to be a total brain fart, and that's possible, yes, but unlikely - especially since we all know that michael just doesn't make these types of mistakes.

but then again, boyferrari has a point - would he be so stupid as to risk punishment for a pole that he already had an excellent chance of winning? hmmm....

btw, why would they strip him of his times like that? wouldn't it be more fair to let the time stand, but give his opponents an extra run or two to make up for the one he screwed up? curious decision by f1... :confused:

[niky]

While I'm no fan of Herr Schumacher's dirty tactics, I think this is partially the steward's fault. If they could red flag and restart the first session because of Massa's shunt, why not for Schumi's stall? And why not penalize Barrichelo for deliberately slowing down in front of the pits on his out lap to prevent Button et al from knocking him from his 10th spot? Pure BS, if you ask me.

[mazdamazda]

ehehe....this is very interesting. first off, michael schumacher is waaay too good to completely blow a turn like that. i think even i might have taken that turn better (at least my project gotham alter ego would :lol: ) and at least wouldn't have stalled out like that. sa monaco pa naman where it's next to impossible to pass.

it would have had to be a total brain fart, and that's possible, yes, but unlikely - especially since we all know that michael just doesn't make these types of mistakes.

Schumi has committed a lot of errors before...

While I'm no fan of Herr Schumacher's dirty tactics, I think this is partially the steward's fault. If they could red flag and restart the first session because of Massa's shunt, why not for Schumi's stall? And why not penalize Barrichelo for deliberately slowing down in front of the pits on his out lap to prevent Button et al from knocking him from his 10th spot? Pure BS, if you ask me.

Yup... Barichello's move was more obvious.

But... that's how they formatted the qualifying laps this season.

[mazdamazda]

ah oh... btw... Fisi was also penalized for blocking DC... but instead of being dumped to the back of the grid he'll just slide to the 10th position.

[artpogi]

I'm also a Ferrari/Schumi fan and was also surprised when I saw what Schumi did, especially when I saw the slow-mo. Close call really, but IMO it was intentional.

We'll never know though if that move by Schumi was sactioned by the Ferrari bosses.

[gearspeed]

Talagang mahirap sa Monaco mag qualify if sabay-sabay silang lahat. Its much better if individual runs like last year. Pero you just have to look Schumi's previous underhanded tactics to see some reason to it

I agree maganda kung paisa isa na lang sila para hindi sila gumawa ng mga ganun tactic..Sayang kung may cable lang sana kami..

[allen_the_great]

The Anti-Schumi View:
When a person commits a crime, there must be a motive behind it. Especially if the crime is done infront of millions of witnesses. But why would Schumacher cheat here? 86 GP wins, 7-time World Champion, 67 Pole Positions, and 5 Monaco Wins -- all to his name. Why would he cheat now?

he has done this before. may tendency talaga mandaya and maging sore loser yan si schumacher. ibangga ba naman si villeneuve out of a race villeneuve is leading just so mahabol nya sa WDC which coincidentally villeneuve is in 1st place and schumacher is in 2nd.

P.S. Nipunish din sya ng FIA and banished him from F1 in that season (although patapos na dn ang season na yun)

[B]
but then again, boyferrari has a point - would he be so stupid as to risk punishment for a pole that he already had an excellent chance of winning? hmmm....

excellent chance of winning? im not sure about that. prior to his so called 'unintentional driving error", alonso, raikkonen, and webber were all on fast laps (meaning, their times in the second sector were all faster than schumacher's pole position time) IMO, meron talagang motive behind his so called "driving error", what with Monaco being a track where it is impossible to overtake unless the car in front's got a problem.

[BoyFerrari]

In other Monaco stories .....


Big-mouth Fisi was penalized for blocking Coulthard who was in his fast lap. Wasn't it just 2 weeks ago that Big-Mouth-Fisi came charging into the BMW garage and angrily cursed Villeneuve for blocking him and lectured Villeneuve that he should get out of the way in his out lap when the car behind him is on his fast lap? How the tables have turned! I'm laughing my ass out now.


Seems the drivers' union have already called a meeting prior to this Monaco race and talked about the "driver's code" and what they should do so that this Monaco race will not send out too many safety cars. You saw what Nick Heidfeld did when he pulled his BMW into the curb when he realized he's not going to make the cut. Driving slow in Monaco would have violated the driver's code. While crashes in Monaco are exciting for the fans, it's definitely not a staple for the drivers who would have ruined their weekend with a crash.


For a first-timer F1 racer at Monaco, Nico Rosberg was awesome!!!


I guess it is really getting really, really obvious that Felipe Massa wil not be able to keep his Ferrari seat in 2007.

[Steeljack]

Schumi's driving brilliance is only matched by his tendency to play dirty tricks.

It was intentional and probably not just by himself but also with instructions from the Ferrari team.

His overtaking prowess exhibited several times during the actual race only proved the laughability of his reasons for his 'mistake' during qualifying.

Schumi could still possibly win the driver's championship this season but he could no longer win back my respect.

A cheat is a cheat in my book, brilliant racer or not.

[jeff1101]

OMG, Schumacher cheated !!!! Why am I not surprised?? It's moves like that that made me root for Alonso (the underdog) last year.

[BoyFerrari]

If you saw the Monaco race yesterday, Nico Rosberg made a driving error on the same spot where Schumacher parked his Ferrari. The difference here is, Nico went straight into the wall and destroyed his car's nose. He didn't even twitch in an attempt to avoid the wall. If that crash took place during the dying seconds of qualifying and Nico is a world champion, he could easily be charged with cheating too.

If Schumacher planned to cheat, I think he should have atleast tried to clip his nose or wing into the curve to make it more believable. But i guess it's very difficult to pull-off a stunt like that at 186 mph to destroy your car and spare the engine.

[jim]

ah......... sino na yung nasa loob ng cockpit nung nangyari yun??? si schumi lang di ba? so sya lang ang nakakaalam kung bakit nya ginawa yun. why not do a real investigation? bakit di nila i-check yung sasakyan? bakit based lang sa video (most of the time misleading) yung judgement call to place schumi at the end of the pole? wala bang sistema ang F1 for these kinds of things??

[mazdamazda]

I second BoyFerrari...

They should still consider that even top drivers like Schumi still makes stupid errors... AFAIK, Schumi spinned his car earlier this year in qualifying. The only difference is that in Monaco there is not an inch of run off allowance / area. They should have also blame themselves for not improving the track area (by introducing a small runoff area on tight corner like that).

Though the FIA deliberated for 8 hours about this issue... but it is still not enough and the judgement was very subjective (how many of those stewards have driven an F1 car around Monaco?).

What they should have done is to temporarily suspend / pause the qualifying clock (in order to remove the Ferrari) then resume afterwards. They could also have

[BoyFerrari]

Schumi's driving brilliance is only matched by his tendency to play dirty tricks.

It was intentional and probably not just by himself but also with instructions from the Ferrari team.

His overtaking prowess exhibited several times during the actual race only proved the laughability of his reasons for his 'mistake' during qualifying.

Schumi could still possibly win the driver's championship this season but he could no longer win back my respect.

A cheat is a cheat in my book, brilliant racer or not.

Honestly, I'm at a loss.

One part of me tells me that Schumi stalled his car on purpose.

But come to think of it, why would he do that? If Alonso took the pole, Schumi would have ended like P2, right?

Is Schumacher afraid of overtaking at Monaco that's why he wanted so bad to be in front? I don't think so. Remember last year at Monaco, Michael made a dare-devil overtaking at the finish line to overtake his team mate Rubens Barichello while squeezing his brother Ralf in the Toyota in-between the 2 Ferraris. Barichello even said after that race that Michael did a very risky overtaking maneuver and he was not happy about it.

The point is, I don't think Schumacher wanted so bad to be in Pole Position because he thinks it would be impossible to overtake Alonso's Renault at Monaco. He has proven in Race Day that he is not afraid to overtake just about anybody. So I'm trying to search for a motive as to why Schumacher wanted to cheat on Qualifying, as the entire world suggests.

The difference between MURDER and HOMICIDE, is intent. The world only made their judgment based on video footage. In basketball, when you are charged with the crime of OFFENSIVE FOUL, it means in the eyes of the referee, you had "intent" in shoving your opponent. That's why Shaquille O'Neal always complains that he is often being slapped with committing an offensive foul. It's a hard call. In fact, almost all people who say that Schumacher cheated, they are only basing it on the fact that Schumacher does not commit those kinds of "driving errors". So this is Perception Justice.

At the end of the day, you all saw that Schumacher's driving moves from 22nd to 5th at the Monaco GP, was no fluke. He even slinged-shot his way past Jenson Button, and that was no easy move in Monaco.

[niky]

What they should have done is to temporarily suspend / pause the qualifying clock (in order to remove the Ferrari) then resume afterwards. They could also have

Exactly. How hard is it? They stopped the clock for Massa's accident, right? And Massa's car was wedged into a wall.

Intentional or not, Michael's car, stopped right in the middle of the track... should have brought out the red flag right away... just pause the clock, push the car out of the way, allow the other teams maybe, oh, another four or five liters of fuel for the trouble, and restart... add a few minutes to the clock to give them tire warm-up time.

While part of me knows, deep down inside, that it's entirely possible for this to be intentional, I do remember a ton of mistakes from Schumi in the past few seasons... some of them plain dumb. Either Schumi was a genius for saving his car, or an idiot for trying such a stupid trick.

I'm happy, though, that they penalized Fisichella. I'm still thoroughly convinced that they should have penalized Barichello, too. Letting him get away with that probably opened the door to other drivers... showing them a method of blocking that's entirely transparent.

In each case, each driver should have been booted to the back of the order of the current running cars (which would put Schumi in tenth), or penalized with a straight 5-10 position penalty... that they gave Schumi a larger penalty than Fisi was pure and simple bias.

-----

Schumi's brilliant drive in Monaco is small compensation for the loss of face he incurred with that slap on the wrist. Not saying he doesn't deserve any, but the penalty should always fit the crime, and should always be applied even-handedly.

Great day for David, by the way. I'm sure he's tickled pink that he actually brought a lesser car in to the podium while everyone else was dropping like flies.