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Ralf Schumacher tanks on DTM debut
People hold all sorts of unsubstantiated opinions. That's how we know there must be some people out there somewhere who still think that Ralf Schumacher is as talented as his brother. Those people were shown otherwise this past Sunday when the junior Schumi made his race debut in DTM, the German touring car series.
In the DTM season opener at Hockenheim, Ralf came in fourteenth place, well behind returning champion Mattias Ekstrom's new Audi A4 racer and that of team-mate Timo Scheider, completing a one-two finish for Ingolstadt. Ralf-boosters can blame the unfamiliarity of the C-Class race car which he was driving, but the track itself should have been familiar territory for the flunked-out former F1 driver. Compare that with his brother Michael who's been burning rubber and taking names on motorcycles altogether and it becomes all that much clearer who wears the racing overalls in the Schumacher family.
[Source: F1-Live]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ajprice 7:43AM (4/15/2008)
They don't call him Half Schumacher for nothing...
Anyone else noticed how well Toyota F1 are doing this year?
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Mark Stevenson 8:04AM (4/15/2008)
For what it is worth, I think that Ralf does have talent. I personally don't like him as a driver but I still think he has the skills needed in order to race in top level motorsports.
Remember, the car that Ralf was driving was a year old, and he didn't have a ton of practice in them. I am sure that if I was racing in Ekstrom's Audi he would be in the top 5.
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Mark Stevenson 8:05AM (4/15/2008)
Edit: I am sure that if HE was racing in Ekstrom's Audi he would be in the top 5.
Wishful thinking, maybe :)
Vega 8:11AM (4/15/2008)
I'm no big Ralf Fan either, but your reporting is not very insightful:
a) DTM is one of the most competitive touring car series in the world, with an amazing level of driver talent. Being a former Formula 1 driver thus isn't a big competitive advantage, just look at some of the DTM performances of drivers like Mika Hakkinen or Jean Alesi.
b) Ralf was driving a 2007 model Mercedes C-Class, which are considered to be slower than the new 08 versions (only 4 of those on the grid yet). Ralf botched his start, but after that he posted the fastest laptimes of the 2007 Mercedes group. Only one 07 Merc driver finished before him, Gary Paffett, who has been in DTM since 2003 and was DTM champion in 2005.
To sum it up, solid performance by Ralf, shoddy Autoblog reporting...
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Quattroporte 8:12AM (4/15/2008)
Next stop, NASCAR.
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NOreasonY 9:27AM (4/15/2008)
ouch .....burn.. i guess hes like an ashely simpson of the racing world...
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Throwback 9:59AM (4/15/2008)
Who in the world thinks he is as good as his brother? Have these people seen a shrink?
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nagmashot 10:48AM (4/15/2008)
Audi did a 1th 2th 3th podium finish not 1th and 2th only.... who cares what Ralf did in the most challenging touring car race series in the world.
Most successfull LeMans racer drieves in the DTM, the RoC champion drives the DTM, in the DTM history over 20 ex F1 driver and many F1 world champions drove the DTM.. Keke Rosberg, Hakkinen.
Mercedes was very pleased with Ralfs 1. DTM race perfromance... like Vega said he was second best driver in the 2007 DTM Mercedes only beaten by a extrem experienced DTM champion..
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why not the LS2LS7? 9:22PM (4/16/2008)
RoC is an exhibition. The drivers are strictly paid to appear. None of the drivers take it seriously, why should you?
nagmashot 12:25AM (4/17/2008)
@why not LS2LS7
in all top race series are paid to appear in every single race series in this world...lol on your comment..
The best of the best race drievers in the world show up at RoC. WRC world champion, F1 world champion, DTM champion, Nascar, most successfull LeMans racer and other..
You are NOT a serious race driver if you don´t want to win EVERY race..specially if you race vs some of the best drivers from different world wide important race series!
Geep 10:57AM (4/15/2008)
1.Everyone knows he isn't his brother, whats the point in bringing that up? No one says he's as good as his brother.
2.It's not because Ralf left Toyota F1 that they are doing better this year, it's because Toyota made a new better car.
3.He is in a 2007 car as others have pointed out and the new A4s even had a clear advantage over the 2008 mercs, Spengler struggled to get the only top5 for a merc.
I'm not saying I expect Ralf to have an amazing season but this is a very poor article by someone who doesn't know what he's talking about just to hate on Ralf. Especially since his result was already reported on Autoblog.
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why not the LS2LS7? 12:03PM (4/15/2008)
He's still a better drive than any of us on here. And than all of the JGTC (at the time he was there) apparently.
I don't even like the guy, but it's difficult to cut him down too far.
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Luis 12:39PM (4/15/2008)
The sibing comparisons are stale. DTM is a very tough series to race in; especially with year-old equipment. A year behind in the racing arena is a huge disadvantage. I wish him well.
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Riaf28 12:48PM (4/15/2008)
DTM is definitely a challenging series, even Ralph's brother said that he would not be able to be highly competitive in DTM. Ralph has talent so I think he will eventually get better, however I don't see him winning races.
I'm a little surprised at Autoblog for this article, it seems as thought the author has something personal against Ralph.
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tuna 1:17PM (4/15/2008)
People seem to forget how difficult it is to become a F1 driver. You don't just show up, flash your ID and get it. Ralf has talent, but like other drivers of yore, I hunch is that he is of the sort that has difficulty adapting his driving to what he's driving... where as his brother, seem to exceed at anything he gets in. This would explain Toyota's performance, or lack of, in comparison to its customer team Williams. In racing, the driver and car must operate as one; even more so in F1. If the driver doesn't adapt to the car, there is only so much the race engineers can do.
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tuna 1:19PM (4/15/2008)
**Edit: "My hunch" not "I hunch". Pre-morning-coffee typo.
f1joey 3:55PM (4/15/2008)
Look it came from F1 Live.. the tabloid of F1
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Geep 11:12AM (4/17/2008)
If you read the F1 Live post however, you would see it was only the source of the news, not the stance that this autoblog writer chose. There is no Ralf-bashing in the F1 Live article.