Well, yesterday after his win in Monza, he announced about his retirement at the end of the current season...
The whole epoch is over...

I'm not a personal F1 fan, but as i like ferrary i was happy at first. But then, all the interest got lost as ferrari/schumacher got all the titles.

As a side note, i agree with Schumacher himself, as we both think that Fangio is the greatest of all time:

"I am not trying to compare myself to Fangio. You cannot compare someone like Fangio with the present day," said Schumacher, who battled to an eighth-place finish at Suzuka after collisions with Takuma Sato and younger brother Ralf.

"Fangio is on a level much higher than I see myself. There is absolutely no comparison. What he did stands alone and what we have achieved is also unique. I have such respect for what he achieved."

http://www.rediff.com/sports/2003/oct/13schumi.htm

I must say, that i pretty much hated him. His un-fair driving style (blocking the road on the qualification in Monte-Carlo, colliding with Coulthard in Spa some years ago to knock him off) and his personality (judging from his tv-appearances). I even lost my interest for F1 because of him. So i'm really happy i won't see him next year

Ah, kwanbis bringing up the old Argentina - Germany rivalry again. Hope it doesn't go a bit out of hand like in football this year

Yes, Schumacher is one of the greatest, and soon people will have forgotten about his agressive (sometimes unfair) style, and he will gain a legendary status like Ayrton Senna.

Same here, same here.

I always liked him, although I must admit it was because he was driving for Ferrari which in reality was really a partial "Benetton-Ferrari" team in the beginning with all the people that followed him from Benetton to Ferrari. It all came as a shock that he would retire, as I figured he had at least 2-3 more years in him at a competitive winning level although I had always thought he'd be racing for a German name plate by now such as McLaren Mercedes or the new for this season BMW Sauber.

According to the SPEED Channel commentary here in the U.S.A. they were stating that his retirement "may have been decided for him from the higher ups at Ferrari" to get the expected to be announced driver Kimi Raikonnen in the car for next season.

In any event don't expect him to disappear like a leaf in the wind, his knowledge can still benefit Ferrari and Formula 1 in general even if he isn't a racing driver anymore. I will actually miss him regardless of some of his harsh driving moments like banging wheels with Villeneuve in the last race of 1997 for the championship and this years 2006 Monte Carlo incident to hinder other qualifiers. How strange it will be next season without him, and yes as in life Formula 1 does go on. Farewell Shumy!


He will be impossible to forget with the stats he's achieved, it will really take one hell of a driver and team combination to even do half of what he's accomplished. I only wish Senna hadn't died at San Marino in 1994 because those two really would have put on the mother of all F1 racing shows!

haha .. no, this time is not about that ... i'm sure that being argentinian helps a little ... but schumi itself agrees with me


that i don't doubt.

What i wonder, is, would he have won so many titles, would senna still be alive? I doubt it. Players are as good as their oponents.

In my opinion, the best drivers are Fangio and Senna, but not Schumacher. Winning competitions is not the only important thing, attitude is also important.

Regarding competition interest, it could increase now. Blatant superioty of one player is bad for the competition. I liked it better in the Senna/Prost days.

edit: spelling

Can't agree more with Gabriel.

Superb driver (definitely up there with the best!) but the personality of a sack of potato's.

I wouldn't be surprised to see him come back in a couple of years and wipe the floor with everyone again.

I will surely miss him as a ferrari and also Schumacher fan. As for his aggressive attitude, don't forget that he was a champion so many times because he doesn't want to loose. It is the spirit of champions to be as competitive as they can be.

Edit: grammatical mistakes.

I'm not that sad that he's going to retire. His superiority sure was astonishing, but it took the excitement out of the game.
Plus, you simply HAD to be a red-dressed Ferrari/Schumacher fan in Germany, and as I always liked the cool Fins more, everyone gave me a strange look when I was happy about him losing against Hakkinen or - now - Raikkonen.

Yikes

This is a view commonly held by everyone not on the trophy stand. This is a sport - winning is the goal.

"If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score?" asked Vince Lombardi.

Let's have an F1 season where each driver gets to one one race during the season and all the other drivers have to stay behind him and see how many people show up. We race to win and that is all that matters imho

Well, we used to call him "Schummel-Schumi" which means something like "cheating Schumi" because he seemed to have either a lot of luck or was cheating in every possible way. F1 is a "sport" where is not much headroom for superiority in any way, but he was in cooperation with Ferrari superior for quite a long time (I think he had this nickname even before he drove for ferrari but I'm not sure about this).
But he's one of the, if not the most, unsympathic F1 drivers (and a German in a Ferrari, which one could consider as a crime on it's own).

Imo F1 is about the most uninteresting 'sport' I can imagine, even compared to other motor and racing sports in general it's tiresome, it was even worse with Schumacher: "Oh, it's F1" a few hours later "Oh, Schumacher won, wonder oh wonder, who would have imagined this"

But last year and this one he's not winning that much...

I feel quite similiar to hollunder...... i do like some racing sport but F1 is among the most boring one to me. I'd prefer nascar and 24hour races over it anytime..... way more tactics, team-spirit and technical endurance involved. F1 always felt like a "there can only be one, NOW"-approach to me..... everything is focussed on the top 3 and its more important to win quick instead of performing good over a longer timespan.

Incidents where Schumi purposefully crashes into the #2 car who's about to pass... team-order... general unsympathetic character of the person...

It is quite interesting that Valentino Rossi was not as vilified as Schumi, even though Vale was also winning world-champion streak...

I guess because it is stupid trying to crash your bike to the nearest competitor ...