| Ex-
Formula 1 driver Jacques Villeneuve has blasted Schumacher for his
behaviour
and states that he will never be a legend. Villeneuve does not believe
that
Michael can ever be as "great" as Ayrton Senna, nor does he deserve to
be
because of his horrible on track attitude. This is what the 1997 World
Champion had to say:
"I think the
problem is that you don't ever see his true personality. He's a racer -
but a
pure racer, nothing but a racer and, because of that, I think the day
he hangs
up his helmet people will just forget him. Senna, by contrast, will
never be
forgotten. Some of that is the James Dean factor, of course, because he
was
killed in action at a young age, but not all of it. I don't even think
Michael
will live on in people's memories as strong or as long as Prost has -
certainly not as strong or as long as Mansell has. Those people
attained a
hero status that Michael never has and never will.
Michael
simply isn't
a great champion because he's played too many dirty tricks and because
he
isn't a great human being. Yes, Senna played dirty tricks too but he
did it
with more class, more integrity. When he took Prost out at Suzuka in
1990, he
said he was going to do it before the race.
So, unlike Michael,
who
ridiculously insisted he was innocent at Monaco this year, Senna said,
'Yes, I
did it. But I told you before the race that I was going to do it.'
That's very
different from what Michael did at Monaco and Jerez and Adelaide. Senna
wasn't
lying to the fans. Michael was. And the sad thing is that, of course,
the fans
accept it - they swear black is white, in fact - just so that they can
go on
respecting the sport they love. And Michael takes advantage of that
loyalty."
Jacques claims that Michael will never be
considered
great, this sounds quite preposterous coming from a man who has been
fired
from 3 seperate racing teams, two specifically because of his poor
performance. Perhaps Michael will never be considered great, but
considering
the fact that he has broken almost every possible record and is the
most
successful racer of all time, this seems highly unlikely.
As for
Villeneuve's claims that Schumacher has abused his fans, well he may be
correct to a certain extent. As Jacques points out, Michael's actions
at the
Monaco Grand Prix took advantage of his fan's loyalty, they believed
without
any possible doubt that Michael had not acted illegaly, while he in
fact
did.
Jacques referance to Senna might be a bit inacurate though.
Senna
came from a time when running your opponent off the track was
considered to be
an almost normal part of racing, this is no longer the case today.
Interestingly enough, Schumacher is from this time, and this could
explain to
an extent why Michael takes actions which today are frowned upon. That
is not
to say that Michael is justified in acting in an illegal action, but it
does
provide some reasoning as to why he works as he does.
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