#thank you for not slandering Mick like everyone else does right now

[lennies-blog]

Article: “Schumacher still an apprentice” (English Translation)

Excerpts from: Sport1.de

SPORT1-Comlumnist Peter Kohl looks back on Mick’s and Seb’s crash and takes a look at Mick’s performance, the pressure he is under and prospects and hopes for the future.

“Hello dear F1 fans! The name Schumacher per se means discussions, passion, hopes, expectations. A heavy load that Mick carries around as the son of seven-time world champion Michael. Claims to the contrary are nonsense. He is in his second Formula 1 season, the rookie protection of the debut year has been used up.

(...)

A Hamilton, a Verstappen, a Leclerc, the young Vettel, Ricciardo in his early years - they all had a much more spectacular start to their Formula 1 careers, literally eating up their established teammates or opponents. Hit it straight away.

Mick's path is rockier, tougher. The crash with Vettel in Miami went badly. A misjudgment of what is possible with worn tires compared to the Aston Martin with much fresher tires makes Mick look bad.

Attacking is in the DNA of top drivers, looking for and using every opportunity leads to the front. Without this ability, this hunger, none of them would be in the top class of motorsport, but would have failed in the junior classes.

The fact that you sometimes have to rein yourself in to achieve goals is a learning process that everyone has gone through. Also a Vettel, a Hamilton and a Verstappen.

For Schumacher, it's about redirecting will, passion and determination into a certain lightness and naturalness. A transformation that is very difficult. Especially when he's constantly being criticized.

The high art for him will be to isolate himself from it, to free himself from it and to continue to follow the path he has chosen.

He's still an apprentice. They make mistakes and they should be allowed to make them. A hyper talent like Max Verstappen needed years to steer his aggressiveness and aggressiveness in the right direction.

A rightly praised George Russell tried to overtake Bottas in high spirits in Imola in 2021 on a half-wet road with slicks. That ended in one of the most spectacular crashes in recent years and could have taken both of them badly, despite the question of who was at fault. Some risky decisions just don't pay off. Mick found that out the hard way in Miami.

He is verbally getting his ears ripped off from many sides (=he is heavily criticised). The fact is: he once again threw away a chance to win his first championship points. His accident frequency is too high and costs cash.What he needs now are a couple of race weekends that run more or less flawlessly and without impacts.

The question of when Schumacher will get the chance from Ferrari to take a seat in the red top car from Maranello has been settled for the time being anyway. Sainz's contract has been extended until the end of 2024. Leclerc and Sainz occupy both cockpits in the medium term.

But what can go wrong when joining a top team too early was shown by Albon and Gasly, who couldn't withstand the high pressure of expectations at Red Bull and crumbled under it. It is almost a miracle that both have found their way back into Formula 1. Because the graveyard of career hopes buried early is large.

Ferrari decides whether and how things will continue for him at Haas. Schumacher is under contract with the Italians and they have the right of co-decision for filling one of the two pilot seats.

If they keep him, which I firmly believe in, the Haas team, and first and foremost team boss Günther Steiner, have the task and responsibility when it comes to the further development and shaping of Schumacher.

And the youngster is in the best of hands. With Haas he has the opportunity to continue to gain important experience in the hotly contested midfield.

Magnussen has proven that the material is always suitable for scoring points this season. And Mick will do it in 2022 too!

It would be appropriate and sensible not to always see Mick as the upcoming world champion.

If he manages to stay in Formula 1 for years, to play a role like Perez, Ricciardo, Sainz or Bottas, then a lot of good things would have happened already. Because then he would have proved that he is without question one of the 20 best drivers in the world. And sitting in a Formula 1 car, rightly so. That must be the primary goal.

If he can do that, he deserves the utmost respect. Especially in view of the backpack that he unintentionally carries around with him thanks to his father's high-flying successes. May the racing god be with him in Barcelona!”

[mickstart]

Hello hello bestie, I just wanted to rant and ask about something so I hope this makes sense…I’ve seen some discourse just now about max being ‘the greatest driver on the grid’ and subsequently undermining and disregarding everything lewis has achieved; absolute double standards with the ‘it’s the car’ debate too 😡 so I just wanted to ask for your insight: do you think, since red bull has the better car this season there’s a chance that everyone’s right and max will get his first championship, or it’s not the car and lewis will again (unnecessarily) prove he’s the goat and just demolish the other drivers now that we won’t have street circuits (and thus show mercedes supremacy and dominance and his immense talent and ability) and set new records and solidify himself as the goat??

(Tbh this is me kind of worrying about max winning this year and it might be irrational since we’ve still got more than half the season left … but I just wanted to hear your thoughts) thanks bestie! 💕

fdjgjgdfsfdjh bestie.... bestie I'm afraid to tell you this bestie but I took a vow like 3 hours ago that I was not going to engage in max slander for a week bc I feel bad that I'm talking about that more and want to go back to politely ignoring drivers I don't like and just focusing on drivers I do like. Y'know, Positive Energy. So I am going to be Fair here.

TL;DR below the cut: the comparisons between them aren’t what we should focus on

Red Bull DO have the better car and that means there's every chance max could win the championship this year, and I really think that will be a possibility up until the very last race. Especially if red bull keep improving their car whilst merc keep their focus on the 2022 car. Lewis will absolutely be the goat but I don't see him 'demolishing' max this year the title lead is imo going to trade hands multiple times. Lewis himself proved in 2008 that in a tight championship it's not over till the final corner. I don't personally WANT max to win this year either but it's definitely a possibility. We're so early in the championship that anything could happen so try not to stress yourself too much about possibilities! Also like you say, the removal of Singapore IS a huge boost to Mercedes' chances.

That said I COMPLETELY understand what you are saying about the double standards and the comparisons between Lewis and Max. By the time Lewis was at the point in his career Max is now at, he had a championship. He'd defeated a two time world champion, taken control of his own career and moved to a new team, and generally done a lot More. I'm not saying that to shit on Max because you know, there are reasons for that and it applies to literally the entire grid. It applies to Charles, it applies to Daniel, it applies to Seb, it will apply to Mick. I'm saying that to show just how unfair it is to either say Max is a BETTER driver or to portray this title fight as two titans of the sport battling it out.

Lewis is on another level to everyone else on the grid, that gets ignored or downplayed and I COMPLETELY understand why it's annoying you bc it annoys me too. When max wins in a faster car some people will say "oh he's the greatest driver on the grid" and deny the red bull is faster, but when lewis wins those same people will be like "it's the car" even though they were probably gloating about the merc being slower in pre-season testing. The lack of respect Lewis gets is infuriating but what's pissing me off most is that when he DOES get respect this season he gets it so people can big up max / because he's challenging max, as if his greatness comes from comparison to max.

That kind of brings me to my main point here which is... don't let these people and this whole Lewis & Max comparison get to you or consume you or define how you perceive this season. Lewis is a host unto himself and he's proven his greatness and is continuing to prove his greatness every race. It's not about comparisons between him and max. It's about him being able to go fast enough to pull off merc's insane strategy in Spain, it's about him being so good at defending in Bahrain that he forced another driver into a mistake without doing anything dangerous, it's about him extracting EVERYTHING possible out of the car in Baku, figuring out and choosing his own set-up, and dragging it up to the podium when we KNOW how shit the car was in Baku because Valtteri was struggling to even get points.

Whoever wins this season doesn't matter for Lewis or my opinion of him in the grand scheme of things. I've said it before and I'll say it again: because of the car being slower and his performance contrasted against that, THIS will be the season that in 5/10 years time people tell you to rewatch to see an [X] time world champion at his absolute peak. Moments from this season will be in some future f1tv "top ten moments of Hamilton brilliance" compilations. The winner of this season isn't guaranteed but this - the response to lewis and what he's ALREADY done - is.

TL;DR: Be prepared for a tight, nail-biting title fight, but don't let the constant Lewis slander get to you. Just because other people make Lewis' talent revolve around Max doesn't mean you have to let yourself engage w/ that mindset!!

Anyway, I now give you a picture of Lewis when people say Max is the greatest driver on the grid: