Monty 0 Report post Posted March 18, 2005 World champion Michael Schumacher was forced to apologise on Friday for crashing into Nick Heidfeld at the first race of the season in Australia. Schumacher was subjected to a 30-minute barrage of scrutiny as the 18 other drivers on the grid aired their views over who was to blame for the crash between the two Germans in the Australian Grand Prix. And insiders revealed the seven-time World Champion lost out 19:1 in an unprecedented driver vote with even his Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello siding against him in the poll. The source, who asked not to be named, confirmed: "The drivers discussed the accident between Michael Schumacher and Nick Heidfeld for about 30 minutes and it was decided Schumacher was in the wrong. They voted 19:1 that Schumacher should apologise to Heidfeld. He accepted the decision, stood up and verbally apologised in front of everyone in the room." Schumacher refused to accept the blame after the incident in Melbourne, in which he came out of the pits and forced Heidfeld onto the grass heading into turn three. The pair collided and Heidfeld's race was ended immediately. Schumacher was pushed out of the gravel trap and returned to the pits but was also forced to retire from the race. Schumacher reacted sternly to reporters when questioned over the crash and said: "I have seen Nick and it is all over. Now is the time to throw this topic away, it's finished." Schumacher absolved himself of blame after the incident but Heidfeld was not so sure and admitted he was disappointed that he was forced out of the race by the world champion. But he is now ready to forget the incident. "It was not the position we would have wanted to be in," Heidfeld told reporters at Sepang. "The team would have wanted both cars to finish the race in Melbourne. It (the crash) is all over now. I don't need to think about it anymore, it's not important anymore. I just want to concentrate on doing well for the team in Sepang and I am looking forward to the race." Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jenson_Rules 0 Report post Posted March 18, 2005 hes such a knob, no matter what he does he annoys me, lets hope he gets a thrashing at sepang! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Max Mosley 2 Report post Posted March 18, 2005 Sounds like harsh treatment to me but I guess if it stops him doing it ... Interesting they managed to talk about it for 30mins. Looks like he may well get beaten at Sepang though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Buttonfan 0 Report post Posted March 19, 2005 Yeah i think that the crash will have an effect on him for the next couple of races Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nojvnof1 0 Report post Posted March 19, 2005 well finally, the other drivers show some balls and stand up to him, but to be fair there are two or three who have stood up to him and voiced their opinions of him in the past (DC, JPM, JV) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Buttonfan 0 Report post Posted March 19, 2005 well finally, the other drivers show some balls and stand up to him, but to be fair there are two or three who have stood up to him and voiced their opinions of him in the past (DC, JPM, JV) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> great point there, nojvnof1, gotta agree alot with u this time (basically, good point) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
