As a Damon Hill fan, and a Williams fan to boot, I’m going to try and write this as objectively as I can, but forgive me if from time to time I go a little far with my condemnation.
Despite my personal favouritism I was as excited as anyone to see Michael Schumacher return to the sport at the start of the season.
I watched Michael dominate F1 for the best part of a decade, no matter what you thought of him you’d have to be the most biased person in the world not to admit that he was the best out there. No one could touch him and, even though the car was undoubtedly better than the rest, at times he did things that left you open mouthed.
Michael was so good that after 2004 F1 changed its own rules to reduce the advantage that a win gave to try and rein him in.
If you don’t know the story, or don’t remember, the elder of the Schumacher brothers won 12 of the first 13 races of that season, winning the championship with an unprecedented 4 races left.
Now he’s back - and with him came a whirlwind of excitement and media coverage. Unfortunately what also returned was the dark side of his career.
Michael may have been great - but no one could objectively deny that his conduct was at times questionable and on occasions downright dirty.
Whether he cheated to win the 1994 title when he collided with Damon Hill is a matter for another occasion, but his complete disqualification from the 1997 championship - after ramming Jaques Villeneuve - is an undeniable low point.
This weekend however he challenged that.
The spotlight is on Schumacher perhaps more this season than at any time previously - and it cannot be said that he’s brought his top form to the championship.
Numerous manoeuvres have been questionable when defending positions - after the Canadian grand prix he was condemned by BBC commentator Martin Brundle as having had the worst weekend of his career.
On Sunday he was again in a poorly handling Mercedes, on old tyres, but this time he had his former team mate (and often team bitch) behind him.
Rubens was on fresh tyres and a place away from a point, but, more importantly to him, one overtake away from some small payback for the years of perceived injustice at Ferrari at Michael’s hands.
There was no way that Rubens wasn’t going to go for the gap that opened up in front of him when Michael lost the rear end exiting the final turn at the twisty Hungaroring. There’s only one overtaking opportunity on the whole lap, and this was it.
Rubens charged into the gap to the inside of the seven times champion, quite rightly taking the inside line into the next corner - what he didn’t expect was that gap to disappear with him inside it.
Some may claim that Rubens went into a gap that was too small, some can claim he was at fault for crossing the white line. However, video evidence will show that the gap was big enough when he entered it, and big enough when he was almost fully alongside.
Rubens Barrichello squeezes past Michael Schumacher on Sunday
Michael at the time was clearly watching his mirrors like a hawk and squeezed his former helper towards the concrete retaining wall of the pit lane.
Millions watched as Rubens came within five centimetres of an almighty accident, not only was the wall there, and very solid, but had anyone been exiting the pits at the time the consequences would have been unthinkable.
Michael is a winner, and will go to any length to do so. However with all his ‘chops’ at starts and questionable collisions with championship contenders in slow corners he had never put an opponent in such a life threatening situation before.
After he had calmed down, and the adrenaline had subsided, even he himself admitted that he had been wrong.
This season is putting an ever increasing black mark over his glittering career. While no single season can ruin a reputation that includes 91 victories - it will leave a bad taste in the mouth if he continues to drive this way.
He is obviously having problems with adjusting to the new car and tyres - but rather than turning to desperation when trying to keep a meagre position he should perhaps be trying to concentrate on his own driving.
The lack of testing will hit the hardest on someone used to a different F1 - one of high downforce and low mechanical grip - and he needs to be using every moment he has getting used to racing, rather than endangering those around him with stupid driving.
What we need to see is the Schumacher of old - the one we watched and wondered why he wouldn’t just go away because our guys couldn’t get close. The one you had to admire, even if you hated yourself for it.
What we don’t need is a maniac in a high powered open wheel sports car causing the sort of accident Chris van der Drift suffered at Brands Hatch this weekend.
I’d like to see him up front, giving people like Hamilton something to remember - a challenge, and the ability to say they raced against THE Michael Schumacher. At the moment all we’ve got is a frustrated middle aged man living out his crisis on track endangering others. It cannot go on too much longer.
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