RH1300S wrote:Perhaps we should look at him as basically a good human...
* Where are the heroes?
Racing, he is not. Neither Senna. Both are totally crazy. If one of my sons behaved like them I would be confused by his "fear of losing". They are a little like "Hudsonhag" posts, that mock everybody around: they are delighted by the discovery that you can behave rudely and go unpunished.... it happens to anybody sometimes and to somebody anytime. The question is if Schumacher belongs to the
first category or to the
second 
Actually, I think that "Alonso-mania" can be explained easily: there is a
third category. Most of F1 fans are looking around the pitlane looking for some hero that does not behave like most of us... It seems to me that people is desperate for somebody to
win and
in style: they cherish every gesture of Alonso that somehow implies he is a "nice boy" and a champion..
There is a subtle difference here: you say he is a "good human", I say "we are all humans". And, of course, most of us are less good than we wish and less evil than we fear.
* The pilots as victims
Well, if you cannot make heroes of your fellow human beings, you try to make victimized heroes of them. At least
this is the theory... Let's explore a little this side of the sport.
The table I gave on year vs accidents shows that competence, difficulty of the sport and character corruption have increased.
I guess it is the money. Look, this is a "winner take it all" sport. No salary caps, no regulations on incentives, heavy betting (ehem... ). Basically, if the pilot can incense enough fans, he get all the money, because he is in a unique position to negotiate with the team. This only happens to a dozen guys, out of 2 or 3 million around the world that have to pay to drive.
On the other side, all the pilots are scared to death because they can be easily replaced with a 16 years old boy from Exterior Borzovia at any time. There are few regulations to "level the field". In one of the most dangerous sports in the world pilots have no safety net and I guess all their families live in fear. They can spend millions to get a drive and then patted in the back in the blink of an eye. Let's face it: an aspiring pilot has the same chances of success that an ancient Rome gladiator had, if not less.
I do not know if nowadays exists just one pilot with a chance to be brilliant and at the same time make an statement about ethical stature (I say ethical instead of moral on purpose). You do not have to be the most technical pilot to do this.
And this, RH1300S explains to me why Schumacher got all this flak from the
entire pit. Forget about the fans, it seems a moment of the sport when most pilots are tired of everything and they are dumping it all on Schumacher, as Schuey on them.
* Redemption
You know, there is a tradition out there. Pilots cut and bump into each other, but they do not do it without limits. Every time you take those limits a little further, the "fear level" increases (and some of the howling of the fans...
).
If pilots start to cheat each other openly, as teams sometimes do with them, then everything is lost and they know it. They are demanding Schumacher to say that he did it and he is sorry or that he did not do it and he is sorry, whatever, but looking them straight in the face. I am pretty sure they are going to have this conversation soon, behind closed doors.
I would be astonished by Schumi accepting his "guilt" in any of these senses, as a mistake or a wrongdoing: a gesture like this would go into history. But I guess that for most pilots would be only another publicity stunt.
Lately, heros are in demand, if you believe to Campbell.
