I used to be a decent F1 (Formula 1 racing) fan a few years ago. I would also like to cheer on the underdogs (ie, any other than Michael Schumacher), but that changed as I really started to like the guy as not only a great driver (a legend actually!) but also a nice family guy according to what I had read. Inspite of being a millionaire many times over, he doesn’t live the racy life as does David Coulthard. He’s got a lovely wife and two kids who are on strict pocket money
Schumacher, whose annual earnings are estimated at $80 million, gives his eight-year-old daughter Gina-Maria and his son Mic two euros ($2.64) a week each!
“They have to learn wealth isn’t automatic,” the German Ferrari driver told Stern magazine in an interview.
“They get, just like other children, two euros allowance per week. They can either save it or buy something they really want with it.”
See, now that’s cool! On top of which he races like Michael Jordan playing basketball, or Tiger Woods plays golf, or.. more closer – Pete Sampras playing Tennis.
Now for those of you who remember Pete Sampras, he was unbeatable. He was just the best at his game. Just like Schumacher. However, he did make the game of tennis boring to watch. Gone were the days of Borg vs McEnroe, Becker vs Edberg.
Therefore, you know what I’m talking about when I say that Schumacher made F1 boring. He and Ferrari just won so easily and effortlessly that the question was who’d come in second, not first!
So what I think is this – Quite simple actually. F1 was dying as Michael Schumacher and Ferrari just dominated F1 so much that there was nothing exciting about F1 racing. Fans got bored. So what does one do? Rather, this is what I think Bernie Ecclestone did. He has a chat with Michael to play it cool for a year – let some of the others come up and win.. and come the new season in 2006, Michael Schumacher will be back with a bang! So watch out for the Red machine and Michael to own F1 all over again!