What they say

Todt was in charge at Ferrari when the team won six consecutive constructors championships and took Schumacher to five back-to-back drivers titles. Mercedes have swept the last seven teams championships and their drivers Hamilton and Nico Rosberg took all the drivers titles during that time.

Todt was asked to compare Hamilton’s success with Schumacher’s:

We’re talking about different persons, different ingredients. The only thing really we can compare is seven against seven [six]. But otherwise on one side you had a very structured, organised German team with, as we said, a very talented, extra-talented driver. And on the other side, you had an Italian team with a different mentality, different approach, which became well structured, well organised and also had a great driver, Michael Schumacher.

But I will say I feel – and I’m sure that I will be quoted for that – the supremacy, the dominance of Mercedes and Lewis is bigger than the one we had at the time with Ferrari and Michael. And a credit to them, the car is very reliable, more reliable. The second Bahrain [race], which was missed by Lewis, for two years he did not miss to score points in a race. It’s absolutely outstanding. Reliability and the driver not doing a mistake, so it’s just the combination again.

Links

More motor racing links of interest:

Dennis Hauger joins Prema for 2021 Formula 3 championship (Prema)

“Despite being only 17 years old, the Norwegian is set for his second season in the series after making an unprecedented jump straight from Formula 4 racing in 2020. Hauger, who is a Red Bull Junior driver, made his competitive debut in the 2018 F4 British Championship after a great career in karting.”

Red Bull could build its own F1 power units under new regulations (Autosport)

“If the hints become true that the new engine is much simpler in design; that the MGU-H is eliminated, and that it remains innovative but the annual cost limit is somewhere around 50 million, then it’s no longer such a complex issue as the current engine.”

F1, cuore Raikkonen: l’aereo alla famiglia di Jasikonis per raggiungerlo in ospedale (La Gazzetta dello Sport – Italian)

“Raikkonen sent his jet to Lithuania to collect the father of Arminas Jasikonis after the motocross rider was injured in a crash which left him in a coma.”

The year that wasn’t: how 2020 could have gone without the Coronavirus (Autocar)

“Billionaire investor Lawrence Stroll’s bid to buy a major stake in Aston Martin is foiled when Geely, buoyed by a surging Chinese car market that isn’t slowed by, say, a pandemic, raises its bid and snaps up the British firm. Stroll surprisingly pivots to buy Aston Villa and announces plans to rebrand his Racing Point Formula 1 team after the Premier League football club for 2021. Coincidentally, Lance Stroll is named as Villa’s new centre forward.”

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