''Michael sets a bad example'' [09/01/04 - 16:21]
Ex-F1 driver Martin Brundle may be a self-confessed Michael
Schumacher fan, but the six-times World Champion's former Benetton
team-mate believes he has a great deal to learn about on-track
etiquette and what is right and wrong.
Brundle believes that Schumacher is a role model for the younger
drivers wanting to enter Formula One, however, at times he does not
act like one. Rather, he is prone to setting a bad example when he
is driving.
Schumacher has in fact been punished for his on-track antics in the
past. In 1997 the FIA, motorsport's governing body, stripped the
German of second place in the Drivers's Championship after ruling
that he was responsible for his accident with Jacques Villeneuve.
The two had been fighting for the World title when, in the final
race of the year, Schumacher connected with Villeneuve. Villeneuve
went on to finish the race in third place, while Schumacher failed
to finish. The Canadian also won the title that year.
"Michael sets a bad example as far as I am concerned as he will run
everybody off the road at the first opportunity. He did it in
Formula Three in Macau, he did it to me and he has even put his own
brother into the wall," Brundle told Sporting Life.
"I am a massive fan of Michael's and I respect him enormously but
he will cross the line and he should be setting a better example to
young drivers. Sure you have got to race hard and it is so hard to
draw the line, but you have got to have discipline."
He added: "If Michael has been about in the mid- 1980s he would
have been over the wall He would not have been allowed to do it by
Keke Rosberg, Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell."