[F1] Het Grote Ralf Schumacher Fanboy Topic! [deel 1]

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Ralf Schumacher (born June 30, 1975 in Hürth-Hermülheim near Cologne) is a German Formula One racing driver for the Toyota team. He is the younger brother of seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher and has won six F1 races during his career, which has spanned from 1997 to present day.

He started racing at age three on his parents' go-kart track in their home town of Kerpen. After finishing runner-up in the national karting series, Schumacher graduated German Formula Three in 1995. Finishing runner up in this series was not the highlight of the year for him though, as he also won the Macau street race, a feat also accomplished by his brother Michael. In the race he beat future F1 team-mate Jarno Trulli, Pedro de la Rosa and Norberto Fontana, the driver he finished runner-up to in German Formula 3.

Ralf then moved on to the Japanese Formula Nippon series in 1996, which he won, earning himself a Formula One drive with Jordan for the following year.

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Money not my motivation - Ralf Schumacher
^{Aiming to remain in Formula One in 2008}

Ralf Schumacher has hinted that he may be prepared to take a pay-cut to remain in Formula One next year.

The end of the German's $20m a-year contract with Toyota this season has coincided with a conspicuous drop in form, but 31-year-old insists to the magazine Sport Auto that "money is not my motivation."

"Fortunately I don't have to worry about that so much any more," Schumacher said, adding that he is '100 per cent sure' that he will still be on the grid in 2008.

"My motivation is that I still believe I have something to offer. And I would not be content with my career if it were to end now."

He denied former boss Sir Frank Williams' recent claim that he has lost his passion for racing by saying: "It is not my style to just cruise to the end of the season and collect my pension.
"

Schumacher said hiring more experienced people would help Toyota's plight but played down suggestions that the Japanese giant's now six-year struggle means that its Formula One foray has failed.

"Even teams like Ferrari, McLaren and Renault have gone through their difficult times. Look at Renault - they are the world champion and doing it tough this season."

"Those teams have been there forever and we are in our sixth year against them," Ralf added.

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Op donderdag 28 juni 2007 19:39 schreef Aarschbaard het volgende:
Ralf, mijn held!

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Op vrijdag 29 juni 2007 00:40 schreef TimoBasso het volgende:
blablabla,wat een gelul hier.. in '99 was half F1 lievend Nederland nog pro Rolex Ralf fan.
De man had nooit BMW moeten verlaten,ik vind het nogal zwak om hem nu zwaar aftekraken,ondanks zijn minderen jaren bij Toyota.

Maarja Olaf Drol hoeft maar iets te lullen,en heel Nederland is er mee eens.


Doet me denken aan Sjaak/Sauber anno 2005


Zo ik ben nu mijn Duitse ei kwijt

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Ralf optimistic of return to top 10



Ralf Schumacher is optimistic he can make it back in to the top 10 in qualifying on Saturday after Toyota ran in the incredibly tight midfield pack at Magny-Cours in practice.

The German finished in 10th place in the afternoon after improving his time on his final run to outpace team-mate Jarno Trulli by a tenth of a second.

He felt his TF107 improved throughout the two Friday sessions and is now looking to make the final cut in qualifying for the first time since Sepang in April.

“That was a reasonable day’s work,” Schumacher said.

“The car was reliable in both sessions so we did quite a lot of work on different set-ups, as well as getting information on the different tyre compounds.

“There seems to be quite a bit of difference between the medium and the soft tyres so we will have to look at the data and see what we do in terms of strategy.

“The car definitely improved during the two sessions so I am optimistic for the weekend but the battle in the midfield is very tight so it is difficult to say exactly where we are this weekend.

“Our target for tomorrow is clearly to get into Q3, I was very close to that in Indianapolis and I hope to achieve it this time.”

Trulli himself finished 10th in the morning session, just before a minor hydraulic problem stopped his car on the entry to the pit lane at the end of the 90 minutes.

The Italian went on to set the afternoon’s 14th fastest time and although he reported slight understeer with his car, is targeting the same Saturday result as his team-mate.

“We went through some set-up work and also looked at tyre performance so it was a productive day and now we understand more about the direction we should take with the car," he said.

“We suffered from a bit of understeer in some places during the day but in general the car seems quite good.

“Now we will have to work hard with the information we have and try to make more improvements before qualifying.

“We will have to wait and see where we stand in terms of performance because it is hard to judge on a Friday.

“For tomorrow I aim to qualify in the top 10 again so I can fight for more points in the race.”