Sometimes drivers cross the line .....part one

In the late summer of 1991 an up and coming driver named Michael Schumacher appeared on the Formula One grid aboard a Jordan-Ford 191. The Jordan team needed a driver asap as their regular driver, Bertrand Gachot had been sent to prison following an incident with a taxi driver back in December 1990. Driving for Mercedes in the Sports Car World Championship, Schumacher had his drive paid for by his employers, and made quite an impact. Qualifying 7th, ahead of his team mate Andrea de Cesaris, his race ended with clutch failure as he headed towards Eau Rouge.

Benetton pounced immediately, buying out his contract with Jordan, getting rid of their contracted driver Roberto Moreno and with a 5th place and two 6th places in his first three races for the team Flavio Briatore and Tom Walkinshaw, team managers, appeared to have made an inspired move.

With the exception of Lewis Hamilton's recent record breaking efforts (in pole positions at least) Schumacher scored a record 7 World Drivers Championships, 2 with Benetton, 5 with Ferrari, scoring 91 race wins along the way. Its also fair to say that the combinations of driver and team manager at Benetton and Ferrari, essentially focusing the majority of the teams focus on one driver to maximise the ability to win races, and therefore championships was hardly new. Ayrton Senna did the same with Lotus and later McLaren, and other drivers have done the same throughout Formula One history, but the pure talent of Michael Schumacher was a class above almost all drivers he competed against between 1991 and 2006.

Quick drivers were beaten comprehensively along the way; Nelson Piquet, Martin Brundle, Johnny Herbert, Eddie Irvine and Rubens Barrichello all found out as his team mates, but there is one element to Schumachers time in Formula One which is marred with an element of controversy.

1994 was a season filled with tragic events; we lost Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna at Imola, and Rubens Barrichello and Karl Wendlinger also suffered significant accidents, but in the midst of the season there were suspicions that Schumachers Benetton B194 might of had some unfair advantages in the form of computer controlled functions such as launch control and traction control. Such driver aids had been banned prior to the 1994 season, and famously Ayrton Senna having crashed out of the Pacific Grand Prix at Aida stood trackside listening to the Benetton which sounded odd. His team mate Damon Hill recalled that Senna "concluded that there was, what he regarded, unusual engine noises" .

Later in the season the governing body of the sport , the FIA, found Benetton had software that might of given their car these driver aids, although they could not prove that the team had used it. With this in mind, especially as a fan in the UK where Damon Hill was his main title rival, the motorsport press continued to raise concerns that this software could of been used and if so it would of been advantageous. If you get a chance watch Schumacher get off the start line at the 1994 French Grand Prix as an example.

However whilst its easy to raise a quizzical eyebrow at these allegations and allow the possibility of cheating to cloud your view on the championship as being a fair fight (and I admit I felt there was something amiss.....) the real issue for me was a behaviour exhibited at the last race of the season in Australia.

After a long, tragic and at times already controversial season Schumacher led Damon Hill be a single point as they started the last race. All appeared to be going in the favour of Mr Schumacher as he led Damon in the early stages of the race, before making a rare error turning in to East Terrace corner on lap 36 running over the kerb and making contact with the concrete barrier with his right wheels.

Michael drove back onto the track and at the next corner Hill dived inside the damaged Benetton attempting to take the lead. With hindsight it could be said that Damon could have bided his time, easily overtaken Schumacher during the lap and then driven off to become World Champion, and by diving into the overtake straight away there was a risk of contact.

What appears to have happened though is Michael turned right slightly more than he needed to, to make the corner and made contact with Damon's Williams. Schumacher bounced over the left hand wheels, landed and headed straight for the tyre barrier. Damon however crawled to retirement in the pits with a damaged suspension wishbone.

The real question for me, at the time, and writing this almost 26 years is whether the action Michael took was an accident caused by damage to his car, deliberate to ensure Damon wasn't able to win the championship or simply deliberate to take Hill out of the race without thinking of the championship consequences. Driving at speed, making decisions at the same speed and having adrenaline pumping through your veins means any of these decisions is possible. From the comfort of my arm chair I was left with a massive sense of disappointment - if a driver is as gifted as Michael appeared to be could exhibit such driving skill, did he need to take these type of decisions to ensure he obtained the ultimate prize of a Drivers World Championship?

I'm happy to be labelled old fashioned, and I fully appreciate that many drivers before and after Schumacher have crossed the line of sportsmanship, but I love a pure, honest fight especially in the world of Formula One. Whilst I rate Ayrton Senna as one of the greatest F1 drivers to have graced the race track, he also took his actions beyond a level that would be considered sportsman like.

What is also true of the world of Formula One is that drivers are very easily given a label, such as an accusation of cheating, and these labels are very difficult to get rid of. Senna and Schumacher at times appeared to be from another planet, dancing their respective cars at speeds their rivals simply could not achieve, but maybe the more dubious actions of driving into their rivals proved that at least at times they were human.