I met Michael Schumacher in Montreal at an F1 race. This was roughly one week before the ill-fated Indianapolis race. I then happened to be in Indianapolis whereby I attended arguably the most controversial race in American racing history.This was the race whereby Michelin shipped inappropriate tires that lasted 10 laps on this particular track and blew up. During the practice rounds Ralf Schumacher ended up crashing his Toyota into the wall due to a defective Michelin tire that blew up on him. Things could have been much worse, his car was a wreck and this guy simply got out and walked away. It was pretty shocking to see this happen, after which all the teams continued to test their cars until finally they realized that Michelin tires were to blame for the entire debacle.
This was a boring race, all the Michelin teams basically left the track after the first lap and Ferrari, Jordan, and one other team (forgot who?) were left. What a PR nightmare, and somehow Michelin will overcome this with nary a scratch.
The highlight of my trip was when Michael put on a presentation for a select group of people on how he works with the technology in his vehicle to improve his driving performance. Apparently driving one of these F1 cars takes more than just balls; it takes some serious training with advanced technology. Technology plays an important role in many sports these days, including car racing.
Michael Schumacher is truly a legend, being one of the highest paid athletes ever. I asked him “Why were you standing still last week in Montreal at the start of the race?” referring to the fact that he had a terrible start. I was ready to throw my foot in my mouth. Michael simply laughed it off and replied "..Unfortunately not much actually."
Besides being able to produce drawings and produce aerodynamic models, I imagine games like rFACTOR could make an excellent training tool for drivers from various race leagues. Playing video games can improve hand-eye coordination and it could very well improve a professional race car driver’s performance.
I also believe playing these games could potentially save some lives – in the case of Ralf Schumacher I’d say he got lucky, but there are probably times when the driver remains in control of the vehicle and winds up in a precarious situation where playing a video game might actually improve their performance or prepare them for dangerous situations.
There are new PC games coming out all the time that blow my mind. When you integrate technologies like the AMD Athlon 64 FX processor and Nvidia SLI you can pretty much raise the detail to the maximum and enjoy the game the way it was meant to be played. Ultimately the realism is so ridiculous that it’s almost like being there, truly – it’s insane.
By the way, Michael Schumacher does have a sense of humor. After the event he signed some goodies for me.
14 blogger comments:
Wow! Now that's how you tell a story.
shameless plug for overpriced pc's
Kenneth, man, do you realize if you removed the b from your name you'd be Kenneth Cole, how cool is that? Shameless plug for crappy clothes.
I was there for that race too. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway took the heat instead of the tire company. That was hardly fair. Everyone wanted their money back but they wanted the speedway to eat it rather than the morons at the tire company. It wasn't fair.
Either way, NASCAR is still just for rednecks.
Haha, except this was F1, not Nascar. I should also point out that Nascar is - by far - the most popular driving sport in North America. I don't get it, but I think it has something to do with the crashes.
Congrats on getting on blog of note.
Join me, Jing Cheng, in my journey to making my first million! I hope to keep you informed of my new business ideas and ventures through this blog and my progress towards £1 million! I am a student studying economics,in Cambridge, UK.
http://jingsmillion.blogspot.com
F1 is a great sport I admit. But there is no more excitement left. All the damn rules and regulations adn they have strangled the sport. That is why I switched over to Motogp. Now THAT is thrill.
Schumi though is a legend. There is no way around it. But this season I think because of Ferrari's cocky attitude he got hammered. I guess in F1 it really depends on what kind of car you got and not what kind of a pilot you are.
Motogp is not like that. That is what appeals to me a lot. Rossi has proved that going from the all conquering Honda to the nimble handling Yamaha (though his crew chief Mr. Burgess was a key player as well) and still winning championships and smashing records is something I dont think F1 will have or has achieved.
MINARDI, the other Bridgestone team is MINARDI!!!!!!! it's gonna be called Squadra Toro Rosso from next year on, for Red Bull bought it.
"Michael Schumacher is truly a legend and when I asked him “Why were you standing still last week in Montreal at the start of the race?” I was ready to throw my foot in my mouth. Michael simply replied by saying “..Unfortunately not much actually.”"
Er... Is it only me who can't understand what those few sentences mean?
Could you rephrase them for people such as I who just can't make head nor tail of them?
Ta. :)
Pretty good, but F1 doesn't get enough coverage. There's some here Acctually that's a very good site on a number of subjects I just found earlier.
Interesting read. Also interesting is the fact that some race drivers like Earnhardt Jr races on Papyrus NAscar Sim Racing 2003 to practice. Once on an interview (I believe it was ESPN), he admitted that he replicated a situation on the game that made him won a race. That sim in particular is really close to reality..at least on speedway's design. GTR (from Simbin) is also another sim whose tracks were detailed to the extreme close on reality. Impressive stuff.
-Polendo
Yes Michael is very good. But I allways think if he would have had all this success if the great Ayrton Senna was still here.
Jair
Post a Comment