Yes, just look at Massa. After Schumi sidelined him, FER brings in Kimi who sidelined him and now they have brought on Alonso, who will sideline him for a third time. Barichello was a talented driver (4th, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 2nd - WDC standings early 2000's) - alas, no WDC. The only difference may be that Merc won't be willing to sideline its talent in that fashion - but the wave of a champion tends to blind everyone in its trajectory... so best if the driver simply doesn't stand for it, I think that would be understood.

Irvine was not faster in Melbourne 1996. Schumacher had a strip rip off the rear wing of the Ferrari in qualifying making him marginally slower. In practice and the race he was always faster by a substantial margin, did you not watch the race? Irvine never outpaced Schumacher as I remember. Being circumstantially faster means nothing.


Cooper

I think you guys are reading too much into today's result. Keep in mind the following:

Schumacher did not do 1 single lap on low fuel before today in the new car, as he admitted at the end of testing, today he tried two laps. So he didn't get it right, big deal! After being 3 years away, you expect he would be a bit rusty for the one lap flier in a totally foreign car!
This is probably Rosberg's best track, so I expect him to be very competitive with Schumacher here.
Rosberg was the star of Fridays last year, and a disappointment in qualifying, which is the one that counts?
Schumacher doesn't know how to optimize his setup for these cars, that is going to take him some time, with the limited testing and running.

Rosberg is a very good driver, he may even be great, the jury is still out. It is no shame for Schumacher to at this juncture be a bit slower. The lap is very long and 4-5 tenths is nothing. You can get that back in a couple corners.

The real question is: Just how competitive is Mercedes? I am of the opinion that they are still a bit behind, we shall see.


Cooper

But why did MS decide not to practice single lap runs in testing?
He'd be regretting that now.

Mika was just doing demo runs, not racing Ofcourse he could have gone faster if he pushed.

If you look at their longer stints, Schumacher looked slightly faster. Maybe Rosberg has some edge in the qualifyings (at least early this season), but I can't see him to beat Schumi on races. I think people here wants him to be defeated so bad, it's kinda amusing.

Oh dear. We'll see a huge hatefest here if Rosberg beats Schu today. I still give him three races to find his masterspeed and dominate the kid

Personally I'd be surprised if Schumacher is quick enough to beat Rosberg over the whole season.

I don't care about free practises, Barrichello was always faster than Button in the FPs, and finally Jenson was the better on the main events.

excuses are already flying around, fact is so far rosberg beat schumacher pretty convincing, live with it people. Maybe it will change, maybe it will not

fact is the first race didnt even happen yet and you anti schumacher people are already fapping over rosbergs poster on your wall like a teenage school girl.

its going to make schumaching dominating and demoralising rosberg into the shell of a man even sweeter.

/emote throws the trolls a pound of flesh (dont worry its rosbergs)

oh the irony in this, youre brilliant

Nico is no slouch when it comes to race pace. He was perhaps the most consistent driver last year. He was the only driver aside from Button to score points in the most number of races in 2009 thanks to his pace especially when he was on a one stopper.

The bit in bold is critical,I think-I'm actually pleasantly surprised Michael has been able to cope this well already. The car doesn't seem to suit him at all-he complained of excessive understeer in the tests and I think the characteristics haven't changed a bit since then. If you lack confidence in the car how can you drive on the limit,really?

I think he'll adapt soon,however. Go Michael!

For us Schumacher fans seeing him behind his team-mate is very foreign territory, even if it is just the practice sessions.

I do remember this is a good circuit for Nico though, he set the fastest lap here on his début.

The gap between them continues to reduce with very session. If this is the start , Michael will beat Rosberg. Maybe not this race, but within 3 races.

It is,definitely,but I don't think Michael is quite up to speed yet. OTOH I'm glad people are writing him off,because if there's one thing I've learnt in over the past seventeen years,it's to NEVER underestimate Michael Schumacher. Ever. When he was at Ferrari in the late 90s I sometimes wondered if he was losing his speed a bit,if all the crap I read in the mags ("he's too old/getting older", "may never win a title again") had an iota of truth to them.

I'm happy to say I was wrong every single f*cking time.

I hope that he will keep up this good performance. It's very good to have these two drivers..

I think people expecting Michael to dominate Rosberg right from FP1 where trying to fool themselfs. You can't just be gone for three years and get back at the same level you left off. Considering the large injury he suffered from the bike accident and the lack of testing i think he is doing great. Being a couple of tenths off in quali on the first try is already great.

And the race itself will be a whole different story, just give the man some time, and never ever underestimate him.

If McLaren flunk I think I'll be cheering Rosberg on.

This is going like I expected. MS is just too old for this shit.

Indeed. While Rosberg is nothing special behind the wheel it will be embarrassing if he somehow manages to lose to a guy who could be his father.

or... He need to be partnered with someone good to give him a boot up the a**e

You're probably too young to be using the internet
(all in good fun I hope)


Cooper

Haug just mentioned on TV that the gap is more like 2 tenths, at least according to his notepad in his back pocket

Under 0.3ths behind Rosberg is OK after three years out of F1.

Well done Kaiser

Quali

Schumacher 0 - 1 Rosberg

so rosberg clearly outpacing schumacher so far

It's qualifying that counts

It's the race that counts

Rosberg is still in front then. I hope MS pulls out a stunner drive tomorrow, at least to beat Hamilton.

Perhaps if Barrichello was given equal treatment at Ferrari, we would see Schumacher put to his misery

But he's less than three tenths off Nico so I think he can be pretty pleased (especially considering the brick Nick Heidfeld put in his fuel tank).

well, schumacher did well today for a guy whose best competition in the past was the likes of johny herbert and jos verstappen.

unimpressive.

At least there is something we can agree with.

I expect the "old" Schumacher is back fully on form around the european season's start.

Felipe Massa?

Don´t forget that slouch Massa who just beat his mighty teammate by 3,5 tenths

indeed!

Good improvement from MS in the last session!

0.3 sec off teammate's pace on a long lap isn't that bad, considering he hasn't raced competitively for 3.5 yrs

he was consistently 0.3 sec off Rosberg in sector 1 only literally every lap, sector 2 and 3 he was on par with Rosberg.....different setup, maybe?

Considering he struggled with understeery nature of the car, ít's really not a bad performance for the 1st comeback race!

This really shows how deep the frustration is against Schumacher truly sad.

and WRC Kimi in 2008

Man, I'm really surprised and disapointed how Schumacher is struggling atm. In his onboards you see no relation with the old Schumy.

The margin is not that big. With further development I think Michael would outperform Rossi very soon.

Man, I'm really disappointed that Massa beat Alonso in Q3 (when it counts)

Merc was a bit disappointing. But good performance from Schumacher - well done!

I'm sure, the best is yet to come. Let's wait 3-4 races ...

You never know, maybe Schumacher is set up better than Rosberg for high fuel on race day. It's almost like qualifying in the dry for a wet race, you need to compromise one of the two. Obviously I'm just speculating but that's what a forum is for!

The 0.3 is only coming from one sector...S1...it has been the same all weekend but MS has cut in down from .5 to .3, Not bad at all.

Atleast better than what the great Alonso managed in Ferrari compared to his team mate.

Good work from Barbie today
1-0 in qualy
lets see what happens in race

Schumacher's glances to the camera after qualifying shouted "this is going to be tougher than I thought."

Bit disappointing to see him and Button on their back foot.

yea its pretty fun how bitter everyone is, i doubt most of them even watched formula one in the schumacher years or the mid 90s

schumachers an inteligent driver anyway and he plays the long game so he should seem better in the race tommorow

A quote from merc thread

5. Rosberg Mercedes 1:55.463 1:54.682 1:55.241
7. Schumacher Mercedes 1:55.593 1:55.105 1:55.524

.