Ex-Ferrari designer John Barnard says he tried to convince Michael Schumacher to change his driving style.
The Briton was responsible for the German’s first Prancing Horse in 1996, with which he won three races en route to finishing third in the championship.
And having worked with the likes of Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost, the latter of which he called the best he’s worked with, Barnard explained what it was about Schumacher that was so different.
“Michael was quick but… I didn’t like the way he had the car set up. For me it wasn’t the way to go,” he explained on F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast.
Also Read:
- Senna wanted Ferrari move but possible Schumacher pairing ‘wouldn’t have worked’
- Briatore: Hamilton has achieved F1 success with less competition than Schumacher
- Irvine: All teams wanted Schumacher but he only wanted Ferrari
“I tried to speak to Michael and put across my viewpoint, ‘For me, the way the car is quick is if you can plant the back end, if I can give you maximum traction at the back at all times, you can open the throttle sooner and you will be quicker’.
“Now, Michael didn’t drive like that. Michael drove what I call ‘off the front of the car’.
“He wanted a front end [where he could] absolutely just turn the wheel and bang into the corner and he would kind of look after the back.
“All the other guys said: ‘We don’t like that because when we do that the back end comes out’.”
Barnard then highlighted Schumacher’s apparently unique setup requirement as a reason for why his return to F1 between 2010-2012 was a disappointment.
“I would love to have been the fly on the wall when he drove for Mercedes in 2010 alongside Rosberg,” he said.
“He [Schumacher], quite often, was nowhere near as quick as Rosberg then and I thought: ‘This is strange, there’s something going on here’.
“My theory, and this is only my theory, is that Rosberg was like most of the guys who wants a car that’s nicely planted at the back and will then find a way to get as best he can around the understeer.
“Michael didn’t like that, and when they did set the car up for Michael he was quicker than Rosberg, but he wasn’t overall quick.
“I just think Michael’s approach to it [was the issue]. It was good when he was young because his reactions were phenomenal but as he got a bit older, I’m not sure that that system worked so well.”
