Alienturnedhuman wrote:
[...]Ironically, without the Ferrari interest, that could have seen Schumacher move to McLaren (as they were very interested in him,
and Mercedes would have definitely have financed him for marketing reasons) meaning Schuey and Newey would have got together - so maybe after Senna retired we could have have seen Schumacher walking away with nearly every WDC and mentoring Hamilton to replace him....
I'm not disagreeing with anything you wrote, although I do think that Senna would have struggled to carry anything but the 1994 Williams to a title that Schumacher won (and given Senna's start to the year, I'm not convinced he'd have been able to claw back the deficit without pushing the machinery beyond its tolerances, but that's a whole other debate). But I wanted to highlight this section, because I think it's worth exploring properly.
Let's assume that McLaren hired the two best drivers they could in 1996, and that there was no friction that caused a hugely different driver market to reality, so in effect Coulthard and Schumacher are the only changes we make to the 1996 line-up. DC alongside Irvine at Ferrari, who don't go on a massive spending splurge, a Benetton team who still fall a little behind Williams largely due to having a poorer chassis and drivers who were never quite WDC material (Alesi's legendary poor career choices notwithstanding), and Schumacher partnering Hakkinen at McLaren. 1996 will still be a lost year - as I recall, Ilmor hadn't yet got their hands on the Mercedes engine, and it was overweight and underpowered. So Hill takes that title - or maybe Senna does, retiring as champion and handing his car to the rookie Villeneuve for 1997. Hill sticks around at Williams because his lack of WDC means he doesn't demand more money than Williams are willing to pay. The 1997 title goes to Hill, although Villeneuve pushes him close. Without Schumacher, Ferrari finishes a distant second in the WCC, while McLaren struggle to score wins with their ongoing development.
The Newey effect comes in for 1998, and with him the MP4-13 is born. Schumacher and Hakkinen win every single race the car can finish between them, and Schumacher takes the title. A repeat occurs the following year, although for 2000 Williams is starting to develop into a force once more courtesy of BMW. Hakkinen retires a year earlier than he otherwise would have due to the stress of racing Schumacher in equal machinery, and Heidfeld is promoted in the interests of maintaining team harmony. Williams closes a little during 2001 but Schumacher takes his 6th title and a 7th in 2002, though Heidfeld manages a couple of wins as the McLaren's reliability lets him down. Come 2003, with Raikkonen swapping seats with Heidfeld, Schumacher is relying heavily on the appearance of the MP4-18, while the '17D just can't match the '18's potential. Montoya and Ralf Schumacher are setting the world on fire as well and both Williams drivers ensure the WCC goes to Grove rather than Woking, although Michael might be able to take the title despite reliability issues. So that's 8. For 2004, both McLaren and Williams get it wrong on the chassis front, and despite a valiant effort from Schumacher, along with Raikkonen who isn't
that far off his pace, Button and BAR take the WDC while Sato's reliability woes (and, sorry to his fanatics, his relative lack of talent doesn't help - he's good, but not WDC material) also send the WCC to McLaren with Renault coming a close second.
2005 looms. Schumacher is very much the elder statesman, but he and Raikkonen are both lugging the McLaren around as the dominant car in about two thirds of the races, though reliability is woeful. Alonso, probably the best driver on the grid at this point, has a slower but more reliable car, and takes the 2005 crown. The same happens in 2006, only more easily as McLaren drop off the pace a little and there is no all-powerful Ferrari to take the fight to them.
Schumacher, deeply admiring Raikkonen in the same way as he did with Massa, elects to step aside for Hamilton for 2007, remaining as a team ambassador as he did with Ferrari in reality. Raikkonen lacking Alonso's ability (and desire) to blow up a team when things aren't going his way, and of course Spygate simply not happening since it's not worth stealing from Ferrari, Hamilton takes his first of two back to back titles, although Alonso replaces Raikkonen for 2008 after Renault disappoint in 2007. After two years at McLaren, the first in which the title could go either way and the second unfolding as it did in reality, Alonso heads to Ferrari to rebuild the team and Button goes to McLaren with the title. And history settles back into its natural order.
OK that went on a lot longer than I expected, sorry! I'm curious though, would this chain of events be more or less impressive than reality? What would it do for his legacy? And would he have returned in 2010? I'm thinking yes to the last of these, but the other two I'm not so sure.