Michael and
Ferrari finally hit their stride in 2000, winning the first of five championships in a row as the combination re-wrote F1's record book. With three races left in his career, Schumacher has ninety wins, thirty-nine more than second-placed Alain Prost and forty-nine more than Senna. He also has the record for poles with sixty-eight, three more than Senna, and for points (1354 currently) more than five hundred ahead of second-ranked Prost! And, of course, Schumacher also owns the records for fastest laps, front row starts and laps led, with three more races to complete his statistical dominance of
F1.
The German's retirement signals a major power shift in F1, certainly among the drivers, but probably among the teams as well. His replacement is lighting-quick, but it remains to be seen if he's half the person Schumacher is at leading and motivating the team, not to mention testing, testing, testing, which is known to be something other than one of Kimi's favourite things. The other big questions concern the futures of Todt, Brawn and Byrne. Schumacher men to the core, the betting is that all three will depart or retire. Without them, Ferrari will be a different team.
It seems to me that
Fernando Alonso's move from Renault to McLaren is much more compelling. Alonso's calm demeanour, committed work ethic, and happiness to live in England, may be the perfect match for Ron Dennis's team. Dennis has been looking for the right man to lead his team since the days of Mika Hakkinen and he may have found him in Alonso. Regardless, with
Heikki Kovalainen replacing Alonso at
Renault, it's not at all clear how F1's top three teams will stack up against each other next year. And too, BMW-Sauber appear, on recent form, to be moving into contention with Renault, Ferrari and
McLaren. As I said earlier, Schumacher's retirement has made F1 a whole new ballgame and it will be interesting to watch it take shape next year.
