Wednesday, February 4, 2009

The New Kaiser

Schumacher is one of the greatest if not the greatest driver to have ever raced in the pinnacle of motorsports which is F1. There was a stage when any driver who is German and who was quick was dubbed as the next Schumacher, heck even a guy in his own family with a Schumacher tag was at one stage said to be the heir apparent but all those who were called the next Schumacher faded away one by one but then there was one driver who was called “Baby Schumacher” which none of the others were called. Well it is no flash in the pan but then it was the first time after the Red Baron retired did we hear both the German & the Italian national anthems together and ofcourse the youngest driver ever to win a race won “The Race” in Monza, a track where Schumacher holds the records for most wins!

A blond German racing for an Italian team does not make you the heir apparent but then, there too many similarities and even eerie coincidences. Schumacher made his debut for Jordan but he was soo impressive after one race he was hired by the Benetton team which was an Italian team and he finished 14th in the drivers’ championship after only a few races. Vettel makes his debut for the BMW team as a substitute for Kubica and he scores points in his debut race and then goes on and even scores points for the Toro Rosso which happens be an Italian team!


In his first full season, Vettel wins his first race in Monza and then in Brazil shows on track how good he was when he overtook the 2008 World Champion who was driving a vastly superior car. Schumacher also wins his first race in his second season and he has a better package then Vettel and managed to finish 3rd in the driver’s championship!

Both are technically sound and on track they are highly competitive. It may be too early to say if Vettel will be as good as Schumacher but then it is only natural for Vettel to move to the Ferrari team and win a few World Championships.

On the side note one driver made an amazing debut in 96 and nearly won the championship but then in 97 he did managed to win the title and well back then he was considered to break all sorts of records. But that happened to be his only title and in 2006 when his arch rival Schumacher retires as a legend, he was kicked out of BMW only to be replaced by a rookie. Does it sound familiar to what happened in 07 and 08? They say history always manages to repeat itself.

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