The Old Rumour Mill – April

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This time twelve months ago the magazines were full of rumours about a Schumacher-Raikkonen ‘superteam’ at Ferrari. What a pity that never came to pass.

Take a look at this and a few other predictions and expectations that were just a little wide of the mark…

Proposals for F1 rule changes

Autosport, 30th April 1992

Some things never change, do they? Like the endless tweaking of the FIA rulebook.

Back in 1992 under the new stewardship of FIA President Max Mosley all kinds of rule tweaks were being proposed and – get this – some of them were actually quite sensible.

They would have done well to introduce the pit lane speed limit – then proposed at a very severe 50kph (31.3mph) – before the reintroduction of refuelling, but somehow this wasn’t done.

Most interestingly a rule to “avoid any attempt to deliberately stop timed sessions by parking in dangerous places,” was considered. How prescient of Mosley to consider such a rule when, at the time, Michael Schumacher had only made nine Grand Prix starts…

Eddie milks gift of the gab

F1 Racing, April 2005

Shortly after Eddie Jordan sold his racing team to Russian steel conglomerate Midland, F1 Racing speculated that he would turn up on ITV as a race pundit.

It never came to pass, but soon enough he did turn up in a journalistic role… as a columnist for F1 Racing!

Marlboro’s $70m Ferrari masterplan

Autosport, April 27, 2006

It would have been sensational, wouldn’t it?

No disrespect to Felipe Massa, but what a powerhouse of a team Ferrari might have had this year with the Teutonic titan Schumacher alongside the implacable and enormously fast Kimi Raikkonen.

Not just for the battle on the track – which surely would have eclipsed everything else going on throughout the field – but for the enormous clash of personalities. Diligent, hardworking, fastidious Michael versus carefree, indifferent, eight-hour-debrief-sod-that-I’ll-be-in-the-bar Kimi.

It could have been the most exciting driver partnership since Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. And it didn’t fail to happen because of a lack of money…

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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