QUOTE (Ferrari_F1_fan_2001 @ Jul 15 2010, 10:52)

I know it's not an entirely fair comparison as the 2004 Ferrari was so utterly dominant but you can see see a fundamental shift in driving styles. He's completely changed his driving style for 2010; the car looks very understeery and he slows down much earlier and then tries to 'charge' through the corner in the hope of stealing lap time wheras in the past he used to throw the car into the corner and balance it with the throttle through the middle.
Compare this style to that of 2004 and you'll see what I mean. It's not natural at all for him and looks very impure. Over the season this style has worked against him.
As has been mentioned elsewhere, in most kart races Michael participates in he always wins - throwing the kart into and around the corner is typical kart style.
Michael is champion supreme in that style, the 2004 Ferrari, the tyres (glued to the asphalt thanks to tyre war, bigger surface - even though they were no slicks, they stuck much better to the road), as well as refuelling (allowing for shorter stints with a lighter car throughout the race) obviously allowed him to do so.
The 2010 regs/tyres/Mercedes don´t allow him to do so - so he cannot enjoy his natural driving style. And obviously he is not able to adapt his driving style like other drivers have adapted - you can´t teach an old dog new tricks, it seems. It is not simply a question of an understeery car - although Nico also hates an understeery car he can cope much better with it than Michael.
In my reckoning it is the new regs that have hurt Schumacher the most - we discussed this issue in the Schumacher thread in April (to the heavy opposition of the die-hard Schumacher fans) - his cornering technique as well as the fact, that from 2010 onwards it is not sprint races anymore, in which he excelled (see some of the Schumi/Brawn masterstrokes with up to three times pitting in a race to make for extreme short sprint-stints), but back to the classic F1 format of going on one fuel load as it used to be in the 60s, 70s and 80s.
The fact that the rules from 1994 - 2009 were ideal for Michael´s driving style and cornering technique (the heavier the car, the harder it is to throw it around like a kart - so refuelling was ideal for Michael) begs the question if he would have succeeded in securing his records under other (normal F1) regs, like in place for most of the history of the sport - it could be that Michael was a supreme opportunist of the given rules set, or better, that Michael´s driving style suited the rules in those years like no other drivers´ skills, a perfect coincidence, one could say - of course not that anyone would like to hear that.
QUOTE (Wlleiotl @ Jul 15 2010, 13:03)

this would work if you compared other drivers from that year and this year as well
Not necessarily, as the problems of MS are markedly stronger than those of any other driver who drove in 2004 and 2010 as well, with the possible exception of Trulli, who seems to be shaded by Kovalainen.