The anatomy of an overtaking maneuver
October 27th, 2006 | by Farzad |In Brazil this year Michael Schumacher was forced to storm through the field following a tire puncture which relegated him to the back of the field very early in the race. With typical ruthless efficiency he dispatched one back marker after another until he was within the point paying positions. Even in the final eight positions some of the drivers like Kubica simply moved over for him. Then he was within reach of 4th place but in front of him was his replacement at Ferrari next year and Kimi Raikkonen wasn’t going to just move over.
As if to reinforce his run of bad luck in the last few weeks Nick Heidfeld had a big accident at turn 1 just as Schumacher was ready to catch and try to pass Kimi. Heidfeld’s accident meant double waving flags at the premiere passing spot on the entire track and so Schumacher was forced to momentarily pull back from his amazing run through the field. What followed next in the last 5 laps of his last F1 race ever was a perfect demonstration of this champions amazing ability to make an F1 car obey his every wish and beat any driver for position. My only wish after 16 years of watching Schumacher race is that I wish he hadn’t spent all those years in a dominant car. I wish he had to fight more for his glory because then we would have seen more of this …
With double waving yellow flags at turn 1 Schumacher was desperate to get passed Raikkonen so if turn 1 wasn’t available then why give up? So he tried a move on the outside at Cotovelo.
Turn 1 is now clear so just 2 laps after trying his move at Cotovelo Schumacher has a look on the inside down the pit straight but Raikkonen covers the line.
On the next lap Schumacher has figured out how to get by. He makes the same move to the inside and Kimi covers but then he moves back to the racing line to set up for turn 1 and to his great surprise Schumacher is still pushing down the inside. For a brief moment you can see Raikkonen is caught completely off guard and his car twitches as if he is about to close the door hard on Schumacher but he realizes the corner is lost and tries to out brake him into the corner but Schumacher has massive amounts of grip and easily navigates his Ferrari on the inside and gains the coveted position from his heir apparent.
I don’t care if you love him or hate. If you’re an F1 fan or not. That is just brilliant, brilliant racing.
All videos Copyright FOM and ITV
Tags: 2006, battle, brazil, kimi, onboard, raikkonen, schumacher
By steve on Oct 30, 2006
That’s great coverage. Nice breakdown of those crucial points leading up to that pass. The skill required (not possessed by Michael alone) to set up a pass going into a left-right turn combination is remarkable. It’s not like a pass in NASCAR where you hook up with the bumper of the guy in front of you and ride it like a freight train around the track and then dip out after the turn on to the straight-a-way. How many passes was Schumacher’s worth: Five hundred!