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Schumacher almost lost the championship in Japan. Luckily Barrichello was there to help him

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No he didn't. Yes he had a sub-par race and stumbled to an 8th place finish but he had a 9 point lead going into the race. Schumacher won the title thanks to his wins before the half way point. The post-Hungary tyre debacle and the dubious penalty against Montoya at Indy just helped him further.

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BTCC Pick Em's Champion 2010
Formula Fun Cup Champion 2013
http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk

that was just a great season

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Motorsports trend for 2024: everything is a bad taste joke now

Can someone help me remembering what was that whole tyre deal in 2003?

At the time they were running those horrible grooved tyres and Bridgestone and Ferrari alleged that the groove width during the race on the Michelin tyres was widening at speed, giving Michelin more grip
At that point the scrutineers only measured the grooves pre and post race, so if it was true the FIA couldn't prove it

It was widely acknowledge to be part of the way Michelin constructed their tyres and even caused that temporary graining phase that usually led to the first 5-10 laps being a struggle for Michelin.
It's advantage was minor, but Ferrari had this knowledge in their back pocket since Michelin joined the sport and decided to play that card because on-track results weren't going their way at the time.
The FIA obviously upheld the Ferrari protest, because whatever Ferrari says, goes and the Michelin teams lost valuable development time having to work on developing a new tyre that conformed to the new rules while Ferrari could get on with other areas of car development.

That, coupled with a very heavy handed penalty for Montoya in the USGP for an accident that at best was a racing incident (and more likely Rubens fault if anyone's), led to the championship changing course.

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Thanks, I didn't remembered that..


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You could also argue that he threw away a load of points by crashing in qualifying in Montreal. I have a feeling that wasn't his only major qualifying error that season either (Spain maybe?).

Yes to Spain and also he went off on his quali lap at Melbourne

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BTCC Pick Em's Champion 2010
Formula Fun Cup Champion 2013
http://www.the-fastlane.co.uk

That Spain qualifying error led indirectly to the collision at the start - and zero points.

Talking about Montoya's penalty, the team made also a big mistake as they first took the penalty when it started to rain, leading Montoya to do a extra lap in the rain with grooved tyres. Should have first changed tyres and then take a penalty on the next lap.