MercedesGP may have averted engineer trouble with Schumacher
January 5, 2010 by vmr
Filed under People & Events, Top Story
There could have been some disgruntled employees in Brackley this coming Formula1 season, except Michael Schumacher’s engineer at Mercedes will not be Jock Clear, but Andrew Shovlin. Schumacher will work with, essentially, the reigning world champion race engineer, as it was Shovlin who assisted Jenson Button to his 2009 victory. Schumacher and Clear, however, have had quite the contentious history.
According to James Allen, of ITV and Schumacher biography fame, Nico Rosberg will be teamed with Clear, who helped Jacques Villeneuve to his 1997 championship victory over Schumacher. Clear was Rubens Barrichello’s engineer for the 2009 season at the team formerly known as BrawnGP. As Allen noted on his personal site, “this will make for an interesting dynamic as Rosberg certainly did not expect to be sharing Mercedes with Schumacher when he signed on the dotted line.” He and Clear will likely be looking for any way to beat the 7-time champion and improve Rosberg’s status, both within the team and in the paddock.
In fact, Clear determined “that Michael would lose if you put him under a huge amount of pressure. He lost the 1998 world championship to Hakkinen by stalling on the grid. I mean who stalls on the grid for heaven’s sake?” as Clear apparently explained in an interview with Allen in 2007.
While the Shovlin/Schumacher pairing seems to be a better, less contentious match, it may not be as effective as pairing the two former rivals together. It seems that Clear has a clear (pun certainly intended) read on how Schumacher works and what tends to trip him up. If the two men would be able to put old battles behind them, though there is no word that they have not done so, Clear might have been able to help Schumacher refine his technique and move past previous behavioral pitfalls. There might have been no stopping Schumacher, Ross Brawn, and a devil’s advocate in Clear. Or, everything could have devolved into a fractious mess. It still could do so, possibly even becoming a bad enough situation that the MotoGP wall-down-the-middle-of-the-pits solution be implemented (see Valentino Rossi/Jorge Lorenzo and Colin Edwards/James Toseland). The myriad ways Schumacher’s return will tease and entertain for 2010 have yet to be fully determined.
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Button and Hamilton, Alonso and Massa, Schumacher and Rosberg. There hasn’t been much in the way of intra-team rivalry since ‘07, but 2010 could be a truly explosive one.
I’m absolutely dying to know what Rosberg is made of this year, as a man and as a driver.
What balance will Nico strike between fighting to stay noticed and getting his head down and working with Jock Clear to beat Michael?
Are you talking about Nico “Britney” Rosberg? Are you kidding me? You only have to read F1 Racing’s latest page to see what Rosberg is made of. Specially as a man. It’s going to hurt to see the massacre Schumacher will do, almost effortlessly.
Mercedes GP is not going to be any kind of inner battle at all. You can bet your money.
Hey Architrion,
I’ve tried to look for the F1 Racing page you mentioned, but couldn’t find it. Do you have a link or a quote snippet?
I don’t get the impression Rosberg will back down. He seems to be quite direct with his views regarding Schumacher’s prospects, his own, and even what he thinks of the Red Baron’s driving tactics. For example:
“Of course, I want to beat any teammate, that’s the direct confrontation, the driver has the same equipment. A little egotism is involved here,” Rosberg told Monday’s edition of the Stuttgarter Nachrichten daily.
Also:
“It is Michael Schumacher who started this, like at Spa, when Mika Hakkinen tried to overtake him and he ran him off the track… When the guy behind has made a decision [to pass] and the guy in front then moves over, it is very dangerous. You cannot do that. That was the first time I remember it being a dangerous issue.”
Sounds like he won’t bend over for MS (his employers may be another matter, I’ll grant you this).
Will Michael wipe the floor with him? He has a level of skill and the results that I haven’t seen from Rosberg so far, to be honest, but too much has changed to make me believe it’ll be a complete walkover. Most people thought Kimi would trounce Massa, but that wasn’t the case, so you never know.
If Mercedes wilfully relegates Rosberg to a disadvantaged #2 status then yes, my money stays in my pocket. He also came to Mercedes expecting to take up a lead role within that team. I wonder if there was anything in his contract — regarding his status or resource parity in general — that reflects this? Regardless, my question still stands: I wonder what will Britney be made of in 2010?
Every one seems to forget the “Keke factor” who also is armed with “Media Position”. Any games played with Nico will have to be played only after removing Keke from his TV Commentating position.
Remember Martin & Mark Blundell anyone, they used to deride every driver who scrapped with DC on the track. It was never DC’s fault, always the other driver was the culprit ;-)
Is Keke only on Germany’s Premiere, or does he have his fingers in many pies? I ask only because I suspect Premiere will go all Schumi all the time, if they can. While I’m sure they value Keke’s input (I don’t have satellite and usually watch on RTL, so haven’t seen that much of Keke’s commentary) Premiere know their market and play to it well, usually…
From all the things James Allen wrote, that Clear said about Schumacher i noticed what part was quoted here in this article.
Vrm i have only one thing to say to you. I see what you did there.
In a Battle every warrior needs his Charioteer to be a moral booster and not morale buster. Given their past together, Brawn/Mercedes have done to keep things “Clear” by assigning Shovlin to Schumi.
Of course I would have liked Clear to have “Fisichellaed” Schumi over the Radio. “Michael Three laps to pit, you got to push”.
Athough with the refueling gone and Pitstops only for Tyre change, I am not sure if drivers would be in position to push before pit-stop
Lol! I can just imgaine the role reversal.
“Jock, I haven’t pushed for 3 laps, we gotta pit hard now.”