Alan Henry
About 10 minutes before the end of qualifying for the recent French Grand Prix, Ralf Schumacher received an informal, yet significant, endorsement of his growing status as a potential grand prix champion.
Willi Weber, the sleekly dressed millionaire businessman from Stuttgart who has managed and masterminded the careers of both Schumacher brothers since their kart racing days, vanished from his customary position monitoring Michael’s progress in the Ferrari garage. A few moments later he shimmered into view alongside Ralf’s car in the BMW Williams enclave.
“That was the moment I was sure Ralf would qualify fastest,” joked a member of the Williams team. And so it proved, with the younger Schumacher celebrating his 26th birthday by clinching the first pole position of his Formula One (F1) career. Come the race it was Michael, seven years his senior, who took the spoils; the second time this season that the pair had finished one-two.
The younger Schumacher has been the revelation of the year, winning twice and seeing off the attentions of his much touted Colombian team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya. Currently 16 points behind second-placed David Coulthard, Schumacher is buoyed by the prospect of his impressive BMW engine blowing away the opposition at the ultra-fast circuits to come such as Hockenheim (this weekend), Spa-Francorchamps, Monza and Indianapolis.
Since he dominated the San Marino Grand Prix to score his first F1 victory, Ralf Schumacher’s career has gathered momentum. A month later he beat his brother in a straight fight for victory in Canada. He has also firmly established himself in the Williams team and recently signed a deal worth about 8-million a year to extend his contract to the end of 2004.
Crucially, Ralf has also come to terms with the fact that being family in no way guarantees him an easy ride from his big brother. In the Spanish Grand Prix last year Michael squeezed him off the road as they jockeyed for position in the closing stages, and hard words were exchanged. Then at the Nrburgring last month Ralf was pushed almost into the pit wall in another example of Michael’s now-routine weaving as he accelerated his Ferrari away from pole position. Cue more dark looks between the brothers after the race.
Yet Ralf denies there is any lasting rift. “The atmosphere between me and Michael is good,” he says, “and I think since we’ve both been in F1 the relationship has become more intense. When I was growing up and racing karts, the generation gap of seven years between us seemed bigger. These days we share more interests than we differ over.
“The circumstances of the incident at Barcelona last year are very widely known and, OK, I wasn’t too happy after the Nrburgring. But Michael had done nothing which was unfair, and I would have done the same to him if I had been in that position. We get on fine.
“It would have also been stupid for me to have pushed it too far at the Nrburgring and risk a collision. In my opinion the Williams race strategy would have enabled us to beat Michael. Unfortunately I incurred a stop-go penalty for going over the white line on the exit of the pit lane, so that dropped me too far back.”
Williams regard their drivers as grown-ups, and anybody requiring much emotional support when out of the car is best off getting a job driving somewhere else. So when the team’s technical director Patrick Head says Ralf has made great strides this year in terms of maturity and focus, it is praise indeed. “He thinks more,” Head says. “He’s more at ease with himself and more at ease within the team. I think in the past Ralf has been slightly tortured by the big brother thing with Michael. He has always been very keen to get into a position where he could race his brother fair and square, and in 1999 and 2000 we rarely gave him the equipment with which he could do it.
“But he’s driven extremely well so far this year, and obviously we, BMW and Michelin have combined to give him a car that is much closer to the front-runners.”
Schumacher has also moved from Monte Carlo to rural Austria as part of the growing-up process. His girlfriend, Cora Brinkmann, is expecting their first child in the autumn, and this seems to have helped make the young German driver a more rounded personality. Certainly he has been able to take a more philosophical view of Michael’s towering reputation. The two men are strikingly similar from a physical standpoint, although Michael is the leaner, Ralf having matured from a chubby-cheeked youngster during his early teenage karting days.
Yet Ralf somehow lacks that ascetic edge which characterises Michael’s public persona. There is a more obviously relaxed side to the younger Schumacher, to which outsiders find it easier to relate. “Of course Michael is the big hero in Germany,” confides one of Ralf’s close friends, “but when it comes to the sympathy vote, Ralf always seems to be ahead in the opinion polls. Michael has all the wins, but Ralf has the spontaneity.”
He did not, though, make the instant impact on F1 that his brother did, both of them having started out at Eddie Jordan’s team.
“When Ralf came to us at the start of 1997,” says Ian Phillips, Jordan’s commercial director, “he was a rather unworldly young man. But although he was extremely inexperienced in the ways of the world, he was certainly fiercely ambitious. Even so, we sometimes had the feeling that he wanted the trappings of success before he’d earned them.”
The team having also given Michael his F1 chance in 1991, in Belgium, Phillips says it was fascinating to watch the younger brother emerge as a competitor in his own right. “Ralf may not have initially had the huge inner confidence which Michael displayed even during the short time he drove for us in 1991,” said Phillips, “but he wanted success, no mistake about it.
“He passionately wanted to be the man who scored Jordan’s first grand prix victory. So when we had to tell him to stay behind Damon Hill in second place in the closing stages of the 1999 Belgian race, he was deeply disappointed.”
As for this season, Phillips is impressed. “The transformation has been remarkable. Ralf has proved he’s got the Schumacher determination buried in his personality. All the hype about Juan Pablo Montoya’s arrival in the Williams line-up galvanised him into showing him who’s boss. And he’s done that brilliantly.”
@Kids ready to conquer
Neal Collins predicts David O’Leary’s youngsters will spoil Alex Ferguson’s farewell
Sir Alex Ferguson’s final season in charge at Manchester United will end in tears. He’ll pick up 5-million over five years afterwards, but it’ll still hurt when United fail to continue their Premiership habit.
Despite the huge investment in striker Ruud van Nistelrooy and midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron their respective fees of 19-million and 28,1-million both broke the British transfer record this summer the Old Trafford stranglehold will be broken this winter.
No, not by last year’s treble-cup-winning sensations Liverpool, who have surprisingly failed to splash out on new talent in the summer sales. Nor by Chelsea, who have aquired the handy Emmanuel Petit from Barcelona and Frank Lampard Jnr from West Ham. Oh, and some guy called William Gallas from Marseille.
The challenge will come from the one club already bulging with bright young talent, most of it home-grown.
David O’Leary’s Leeds will top the Premiership this season. Only one thing can stop them. Lee Bowyer ever present last season despite the umpteen court appearances and David Woodgate must survive the never-ending case against them if Leeds are to thrive.
It would help too if Lucas Radebe, their spiritual leader, recovers from his ankle, knee and concussion problems.
But even with these provisos, it’s Leeds for me. I hate them. Motivated, arrogant, aggressive. Alan Smith and Robbie Keane are all that and more. And after a summer of Australian domination, need we say any more about Socceroos Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka? The support cast features Nigel Martyn, Ian Harte, Rio Ferdinand, David Batty, the excellent Olivier Dacourt and, of course, the awful Bowyer.
The battle for the runners-up spot will be between Chelsea (now that Frank Leboeuf finallly realised it would be best for everyone if he went back to France, and assuming Claudio Ranieri has learnt to speak the lingo), Liverpool who must decide between Robbie Fowler’s refound hunger, Michael Owen’s maturing talent and Emile Heskey’s considerable weight up front and Arsenal.
The Gunners are behind Manchester United on the summer shopping stakes but in Francis Jeffers and Giovanni van Bronkhorst they have made two bargain buys. Ipswich exile Richard Wright will keep David Seaman on his toes, Spurs refugee Sol Campbell is the perfect replacement for Tony “One more season” Adams and now Patrick Vieira has decided he is staying, they will push Leeds all the way.
The purchase of Junichi Inamoto might not help Arsenal on the field, but it will on the balance sheet. For a 4-million transfer fee, the Gunners could reap 200-million in sales of merchandise connected to the Japanese international. The coffers could be further swelled by the rumoured 20-million sale of Ashley Cole to Barcelona.
Of course, I could be boring and talk up Manchester United. But I firmly believe that the no-nonsense Veron and the less-nonsense Roy Keane will struggle to bed in together in the centre of Fergie’s new-look midfield. I foresee problems too when Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Van Nistelrooy all reach for the striker’s shirt.
And when they come up against Aston Villa and their old hero Peter Schmeichel, expect broken hearts and dropped points.
That said, United can hardly be discounted. Fergie is unlikely to be happy to say sayonara without some sort of silverware even though he’s lost his trusty assistant Steve McClaren to Boro.
Ah well, they can have the Worthless Cup with our blessing.
Schmeichel will boost Villa despite the loss of Gareth Southgate to Boro and David James to West Ham, Ipswich will slip just a little from last season’s high (they should have got that dusty old Portman Road cheque book out) and Fulham will be right up there, battling the big boys with Jeanlll Tigana earning manager of the year.
Mid-range? Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers will ensure that none of the promoted sides go down for the first time in ages, while Charlton Athletic, Sunderland and Middlesbrough will hover around the meaningless middle table places with them.
Spurs, though boosted by new boss Glenn Hoddle, old striker Teddy Sheringham and the canny ex-Chelsea Uruguayan Gustavo Poyet, will struggle under the miserly eye of new owners Enic. Everton, with the astute Walter Smith off-setting the financial problems, should be safe but unspectacular.
Going down? Coventry are bl… oh no! They finally went last season!
West Ham under nice guy Glenn Roeder (he really is a nice guy; I sat next to him at two Football Writer of the Year dinners) will struggle if they can’t keep Paulo Di Canio’s mouth under control. James is no world class stopper, personally I prefer Shaka Hislop.
Derby County will be worse though. Jim Smith and Colin Toddy might have snapped up Fabrizio Ravanelli for the biggest wage in the club’s history but where he was prematurely grey at Middlesbrough a couple of years ago on 42 000 a year, he’ll be as bald as Smithy by the time he finishes a winter at Pride Park.
Strangely, I’ve got misgivings about Bobby Robson and Newcastle too. Poor old Bobby is too honest for post-millennial football with its lack of loyalty. They need to hold on to Kieron Dyer. Desperately.
Still further down, Southampton have got no hope. Glenn Hoddle is gone, Hassan Kachloul has joined Villa, all is lost for the Saints as they go marching out of the Premiership.
What’s that man-llllllager’s name again?
@Season guide
Premiership champions: Leeds
Runners-up: Arsenal
There or thereabouts: Liverpool, Fulham and Manchester United
Surprise package: Everton will be the new Ipswich
FA Cup winners: Aston Villa, with Schmeichel saving two penalties in the final. And scoring in the last minute. Against Man U
Worthington Cup: Manchester United, beating Leyton Orient in the final
Relegated: Derby, Newcastle, Southampton
Watch out for: The state of Arsenal’s team bus after the trip to White Hart Lane. Sol Campbell will have to pay
First managerial casualty: Jim Smith at Derby
First burst of big-name unhappiness: Veron or Keane at Man U. Preferably both
Shock transfers: Ryan Giggs to Real Madrid, David Seaman to QPR
Top goalscorer: Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink again. Marcus Stewart? Who he?
Expect: Dwight Yorke to go back to Villa. Vieira to threaten to leave all season before kissing his badge repeatedly in the last game of the season
Shock England call-up: Francis Jeffers
Deadly duo: Robbie Savage and Dennis Wise at Leicester
Division One champs: Watford, under Gianluca Vialli and pals
Consider this: Paulo Di Canio lifting the Premiership trophy. After signing for Fulham