With all the Michael Schumacher apologists sprouting up this past week, the 7-time champion has to feel like he has some good friends who are confident in his abilities even when the media, anti-Schumacher fans and random headline grabbers aren’t. But there is one professional driver who carries a large amount of weight and he has used that weight to weigh in on the situation.
Sir Stirling Moss has taken a different tack from the other Schumacher pundits telling the Metro:
‘He’s a highly intelligent bloke, and I really can’t see… all he’s going to do is damage his achievements.
‘People are going to say he’s past it now, which he probably is.’
Moss, recovering from a nasty fall down a lift (elevator) shaft, says he isn’t ure why the German would choose to come back to the spot but I offer this reasoning Sir Stirling:
Michael should never have left. He was not ready to retire and was effectively forced out of Ferrari. Surely a man of your immense talent and continued involvement in motorsport well in to your 80’s, you can appreciate that drive and passion for the sport?
Moss figures the reputation and accomplishments were not worth tarnishing on a whim and states very clearly that the achievments at risk are more than just titles:
‘We’ve never seen Michael with a number two who’s been comparable. He had Rubens Barrichello who no doubt is an extremely good driver, but not necessarily a winner.
‘Michael’s greatest contribution was bringing English engineers to Ferrari.
‘Ross Brawn and those chaps brought Ferrari from being has-beens back to the front. Because he didn’t have a comparable team-mate it was very difficult to know how much of it was down Michael and how much was the car.
‘People say he’s the best because he has seven world titles, but that doesn’t mean anything really.
‘Well, it does mean something – it’s a hell of an achievement – but it doesn’t mean he’s the greatest ever.’
I would be remiss if I didn’t say that there is some truth in Moss’s words but I also would be lying if I said that Schumacher doesn’t have it. I think he does but it will take time and with the same sentiment coming from Coulthard, Brundle, Ecclestone and others, I am inclined to think many feel the same way.
Needless to say, who is going to doubt Sir Stirling Moss? I’ll leave that for the more witty tongued devils in the press.
