Technical Knockout

Michael Schumacher is generally accepted as one of the top drivers ever to race in Formula One but whatever natural skill he has in the driving department has always been significantly enhanced by his supreme technical understanding of the car and of how technical changes to it can be leveraged to improve lap times.

Not only have Schumacher's technical improvisation skills brought wins in cars that should not have otherwise won on the day, both early on in his career, at Benetton, and right to the present day at Ferrari, but his adaptation to change is also something that has set him above the rest.

Over Schumacher's time in Grand Prix racing, a total of 15 years, the change in car design has been revolutionary. No single area of technology has remained the same during his career, as one quick look at Jordan's 191 and Ferrari's 2006 machine will attest. But somehow Schumacher has got the best out of all of them.

Partners and Approach

While the sport and the cars have changed some things have been consistent in Schumacher's F1 career, namely the personnel around him and his own personal approach. He has driven and won solely in cars penned by Rory Byrne and managed by Ross Brawn and it is this technical triumvirate that has been part of the length and consistency of his success.

Added to the personnel Michael, a trained car mechanic, has taken a diligent and disciplined approach to race engineering that has made sure the team could always extract the maximum out of any given weekend.

It's not quite clear where the main success has come from in this technical trio, latterly made a quartet with the addition of Jean Todt at Ferrari. Certainly Ross and Rory had careers preceding the Germans arrival at Benetton and these included some success in F1. But at the same place and at the same time, their individual skills accumulated to form a package better than their constituents.

Each person had their own role in the team; designing, operating or driving the car, and again the inclusion of Todt added the managerial and political role, to control Ferrari and indeed Italy's politics, was a critical requirement to provide the trio with their resources to go racing, not to mention to separate them from the commercial demands of a Formula One team.

Thus each of these people was able to focus on their core job while working easily as team and also with the wider team. Each one a strong character but not necessarily big egos, and that has added to the team ethic that has allowed the cars to be operated at such a high and consistent level.

Individually Schumacher has brought a commitment and focus to F1 not seen previously. His application to the job of being a 'complete' driver has inspired many others to follow in his approach, even if some of his specific tactics are not so admirable. While there have been fantastically fast drivers and some technical drivers and drivers with undying commitment, it has been Schumacher's collation of these skills that have set him apart.

He may not be the fastest natural driver, either in a race or over a single lap, but his technical understanding of what a specific car requires to lap quickly, on a given circuit and in the prevailing conditions supplements his pace. As Michael actively seeks to understand the car before jumping in and driving, he gets the best of the car more of the time, leading to the consistency that he has enjoyed for so long.

This also goes back to the relationship with the technical staff on the team, who do not have to tailor the car to suit the driver as much as explain to the driver what is needed to go fast. Naturally fast drivers often can't understand how or why they are fast.

Schumacher's more technical approach, and the explosion in telemetry and data in the past fifteen years, have enabled him to respond to what the car wants, not only in the garage but also out on the track.

With mid-race pit stops, the interaction between driver and engineer continues after the lights go out at the start and, thanks to telemetry, the team on the pit wall now had critical information on where their strategy sat in comparison to their rivals. No longer was the driver the sole judge of how to pace a race, so once again the technical relationship with the team, and with Ross Brawn in particular, informed Schumacher how to run his race.

The Cars

Trying to find key technical developments that have aided Michael would be akin to the covering the technical development of the F1 car since 1991. With all the developments, rule changes and counter developments over the past fifteen years, this review would be encyclopedic. However, it is possible to extract from his chronology some if his important cars and map some developments that reflect his approach to Formula One.

Jordan

As a first car in F1 the Jordan 191 was not a bad start. The Irish team were newcomers and, despite limited funds, their little green car, designed by Gary Anderson, was already recognised up and down the pitlane as something a bit special.

For Schumacher, this was the only low budget F1 car he would ever drive. With a customer Ford V8 engine and no clever electronics the car was simple. Despite the aerodynamic shape being quite progressive for the time, taking strong cues from Adrian Newey's Leyton House car, Anderson had created a curvaceous machine that looked the part, even if the wind tunnel time was not as great as they would have liked.

Interestingly the Jordan sported a monoshock front suspension, a system developed for aerodynamic-focused cars that sacrificed some of the mechanical grip for a much better aero platform. The monoshock had very tight control on roll and reduced the pitching the car would see under braking. This made the car difficult to drive on bumpy or slow corners.

With his first qualifying session at the infamous Spa circuit, complete with public road sections, hairpins and bumpy super-fast corners such as Eau Rouge and Pouhon, this was not the ideal track for mechanically compromised car. But Schumacher's resulting grid position immediately underlined his ability to react and drive around the peculiarities of a car.

Benetton

After a lightning-quick team switch, Schumacher took control of his second Formula One car, the Benetton B191, just one race later. The car marked the end of John Barnard's spell at Benetton and, most significantly, the legendary British engineer's co-designers were listed as Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne.

Brawn and Byrne were to evolve the B191 into their own car with the B192 for 1992 and the B193 the year after, and both followed the same fundamental design of the B191, which made very effective use of the latest in aerodynamic fashion, the rounded raised nose with full-width drop plate-mounted front wing.

At this time, although the team had flamboyant Italian owners, Benetton were still very much a typical British 'garagiste' team. Despite having had wins in the preceding years, the team were not yet at a championship winning stage and this was a time when high technology and engine partners were becoming the norm in F1.

Ford were initially supplying engines to Benetton on a customer basis but soon became their fully backed entrant. The development of the V8 engine leaped ahead with high revs and an impressive power output. This was all packaged in to a diminutive unit and allowed Benetton to create a lighter more nimble car than the V10 and V12 engined opposition.

They were also developing their own electronic driver aids, starting with the semi automatic gearbox, active suspension and latterly rear wheel steer, a simple enough idea that made the car's chassis controller react to steering input and road speed to steer the rear wheels though hydraulic struts, replacing the usual rear toe links. By the time the system had been developed the ban on active technologies was announced, but the team still decided to race it in the last races of the season.

It was the explosion of electronics on the cars that allowed Schumacher to make the most of his technical abilities, monitoring and controlling various systems on the car during qualifying and the race. By 1994 the cockpit was awash with displays and controls. Even after the active technologies were banned, the engine and chassis controllers still provided the driver with options which could be altered to react to tactical situations in the races, discussed over the ever improving pit-to-car radios.

Although the B194 was a faster car than the rival Williams it was the team's ability to play the ideal race strategy and alter it in response to events in the race that allowed the team to win so many races in 1993 and finally take the championship 1994.

The tragic events that shaped the 1994 season were also to drastically alter the rules for 1995, with major safety and aerodynamic changes forced through. The team had secured a supply of Renault V10 engines with parity to those supplied to Williams and the larger engine was installed to the chassis, which was altered to fit the new stepped underbody without any great loss to the car's dynamics.

The team's ability to make these major changes to the car and not make an error leading to a loss in the performance of the car showed the team had matured. And with that added to their continued mastery of race strategy, they were able to beat Williams to yet another championship in 1995.

Ferrari

Schumacher made the move Ferrari in 1996, leaving behind the Brawn and Byrne combination which had so successfully developed the Benetton team and finding their predecessor, John Barnard, working hard to restore former glories to Ferrari. The Italian team had been struggling under various groups of management and had been without any real direction or success for some time.

Barnard developed several key technologies at Ferrari, most notable being the semi automatic gearbox, a split carbon fibre titanium gearbox case and flexures for mounting the suspension to the chassis. After initial success with Prost and Mansell had faded and Barnard left the team briefly, but he returned with an optimistic technical operation split between Maranello and Barnard's design office in the UK.

Technical troubles continued to plague the car, however, and Brawn was attracted to the team mid season with the lure of both Jean Todt and Michael Schumacher now in the team. Over the winter Byrne was also persuaded to join rather than retire to Thailand and Barnard finally split with Ferrari, having reworked the F310 into a B-spec car for 1997.

The initial F310 was complicated car and it suffered from messy aerodynamics, sporting a low nose and raised sidepod fronts. Ferrari's rivals coped better with the new demand for cockpit padding and sported cleaner raised nose designs and Schumacher's machine already looked outdated. Mechanically the car's hand made gear casing was not up to the job of both containing the loads being passed through with the heat being generated by the engine and gearbox internals.

Later in the year a major rework of the car lead to a compromised raised nose and under-slung front wing. The car's reworking showed a sign of the development that was to come from Ferrari over the next 9 years and the F310b sported a cleaner shape, a new raised nose, lower cockpit sides and Benetton-esque sidepods that were grafted on to what was essentially the same monocoque.

Byrne had more free reign to design the 1998 car and the new chassis dimension regulations created a square shaped monocoque with a slender raised nose and a single keel. The sidepods were still quite large with their unique flip up hot air outlet combination.

With the V10 3-litre still under Paolo Martinelli's control, as it had been since 1996, the engine had been refined to one of the best, although not always the most powerful unit in F1. Mated to this was the hybrid gear case, made of a carbon fibre upper section to contain the suspension loads and mount the dampers and torsion bars and a simple fabricated titanium case to house the gear cluster.

From 1998 this design matured in to the F2000 and with it came the team first drivers' championship since the 312T4 in 1979. With the first title in the bag the team made a crucial moved and shifted focus onto specific areas of the car such as the electronic differential, ever smaller sidepods and an all titanium gearbox.

From this position the team exerted a clear car advantage over their rivals, perhaps the clearest level of car advantage Schumacher had experienced. From then on success came in a mix of domination and determination.

A difficult year followed in 2003, when the change towards parc ferme rules cut off Ferrari's qualifying car strategy, but normal service resumed in 2004. In 2005, the single tyre per race rule limited Bridgestone's advantage, while this year has seen them battle hard and enjoy a mid-season resurgence.

Cockpit Design

While the cars have changed around him, shaped by the rules and the engineers, there is one area where Schumacher has been able to have almost total control over its design: The cockpit. Admittedly, some rules for safety's sake have added space and padding, but the actual primary controls of the car are left to the driver to select. The steering wheel, dashboard and gear selection, then even deeper within the cockpit the pedals, can be as simple or complex as the driver wishes.

A look at the controls of Schumacher's Formula One steeds, then, displays Schumacher's intense interest in the technical side of the car, as more and more functions came under electronic, and hence his, control. Throughout his career, Schumacher has revelled in his influence on the layout of his 'office'.

Jordan 1991

Schumacher's first F1 cockpit was both the simplest and also the one he had least influence over. Jordan were in their first year and the simplicity and lack of add-ons reflected the teams' technical position at the time.

A simple steering wheel provided by Momo and a 'out of the box' dashboard from Pi Research made up the majority of the control. With a manual "H" gate gearbox there was still a gear lever with its linkage to allow the rotary and longitudinal movement back the selector mechanism. To the lower left of the cockpit was a simple panel with on-off switches and the extinguisher button.

Benetton 1995

Just four years later and despite driver aids being banned the explosion of electronics on the car created more controls and display for the driver to work with. Two-and-a-half years into his Benetton career, Schumacher was able to layout the cockpit to suit his needs. Stating with a steering wheel from Personal, the basic wheel was dotted with buttons for radio, drinks bottle and other controls. Often there was a digital watch attached to the centre of the steering wheel.

Around the cockpit rim a secondary dash was added, with temperature and gear readouts as well as his preferred array of shift lights. Below this, in a more conventional place, was the main dash, which housed a Marelli dashboard and an array of rotary switches and buttons to control the engine, gearbox and differential. By now semi automatic gearboxes were in use and the gearshift stick was changed for a pair of paddles behind the steering wheel.

Ferrari 2004

On Joining Ferrari Schumacher adopted a very similar cockpit layout to that of his Benetton days. Within a year the steering wheel had evolved into the main location for the controls and displays, enclosed within a moulded carbon fibre wheel. This further evolved in 2004 with a totally new wheel moulding and controls, all linked to the Marelli engine and chassis controllers. Further to these car-based functions the team could also send messages to the large central display - to such an extend that the team reportedly once sent Schumacher the German football results during a practice lap!

Such was the complexity and variety of the controls on the wheel, there were no longer any major controls on the dash bulkhead, save for the emergency extinguisher button and brake bias lever.

This left Schumacher with both hands permanently on the wheel in order to adjust and optimise the car, not only during the races but also during a single qualifying lap. This attention to detail and maximising the cars performance for each sector of the lap is one of the traits that has set Schumacher apart form his peers.

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- The Autosport.com Team

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