Wrath
Registered User
- Jan 13, 2012
- 2,184
- 186
Michael Schumacher dominated Formula One for a good while but would you consider a F1 driver an athlete or a sportsman?
Not really sure you'd consider it a major sport. Cricket in terms of popularity is a major sports and Shane Warne and Ricky Ponting dominated it for a while.
Michael Schumacher is a great driver, but I don't think any F1 fan seriously considers him undisputed GOAT. He's usually lumped with Senna (and maybe Prost or something) in the possible GOAT category.
Michael Schumacher raced in the least competitive era of F1 racing in recent history. Ferrari had the best chief designer (which by history seems to be the most important factor for winning in F1), had tires specially made for them (no standardized tires, so basically Ferrari hired Bridgestone to make tires formulated around their racing chassis for the season), had a hell of a secondary driver who was completely willing to let Schumacher win at all costs (hitting the brakes with a solid lead in the last lap!).
Many people consider Senna to be the greatest of all time in F1 simply because the competition at that time was historically high (namely Prost, and others like Mansell), and yet he still put up incredible lap time margins over his competitors at his best.