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VirginPower March 19, 2010 3:25 PM

He'd win.

And if you have to pay to get in, you're not that good.

Jim Holder March 19, 2010 5:34 PM

So Schumacher's not that good? Or have you forgotten how much Merc etc paid to get him in that Jordan seat (the same amount as Anthony Reid was asked for, according to the contract I was privy to seeing - and which Flavio/Benetton sent to the shredder...)

VirginPower March 20, 2010 9:07 AM

Well, by definition, Schumacher is as good as Schumacher, since he is, in my opinion: Schumacher.

If Anthony Reid would've had to pay £2 million to get a drive with Jordan (a tiny team with a chaotic budget), and without Mercedes or the like funding him because no powerful organisation believed he had the skill of a Schumacher, then he's patently not as good as Schumacher.

Let's face it, although Anthony Reid is a better driver than you or I, he's no Schumacher, he's just a good brick whom you met the other day.

My point was really in answer to your naughty little snipe about Schumacher's ability. I'm sure he'd beat anybody else at the hill climb, unless, unlike those posturing, over-ripe and forgotten racers, he lifted-off a little in the secure knowledge that he's got nothing to prove.

Anthony Reid came from the fading glory days of Touring Cars and did quite well in a couple of other series, so he can be proud of his achievements, but Jordan gave the unearthly talent of Schumacher an entry onto the grid - it was simply used as a launching pad for a driver who everybody knew was a future star.

Reid, I suspect, would've wanted his money's worth, and got it by remaining at Jordan (or somewhere similar) for all of this hypothetical F1 career.

You'll remember that Jordan were paid around £90,000 by Mercedes for his appearance (that's not £2 million in my opinion), you'll remember that he out-qualified his team-mate and matched Jordan's best grid-placing of the season, and you'll remember they didn't keep him for long (one race, was it?).

I think you might be getting a bit muddled up about Briatore, since he had to perform a devious manoeuvre to get the peerless Schumacher out of a Jordan seat. It had been agreed in principle that Mercedes' funding of Schumacher meant that he would drive for Jordan for the rest of the season, but after only one race, it was Eddie who was battling a rearguard action to keep Schumacher in his car.

There's a peculiar whiff of nostalgic propagandising to which you're not only privy, but by which you seem a bit overwhelmed.

Quite a few hundred very good drivers like Anthony Reid come along every decade; only one Schumacher or Senna comes along in the same period, if we're lucky.

This decade, it may be Vettel, it may be Hamilton, but they're yet to prove it convincingly. Let's just hope, despite all of the blind spite-tossers, that we see someone who can match what Schumacher gave to the sport. At the moment and hopefully for the next three years, we're lucky enough to see the great man racing, and very soon I believe he'll clearly demonstrate why there is no hype, there's just genius.