Ex-Formula One driver Jos Verstappen claims that the car his Benetton teammate Michael Schumacher drove to the 1994 world championship was fitted with illegal electronic driver aids.
Nusport, a Dutch magazine, quotes Verstappen as saying, "I know what happened when we were together at Benetton.
"People think I'm looking for excuses but I know that his car was different from mine. I always thought it was impossible. I braked at the limit and took the corners as hard as possible, so how could Schumacher do it? There was something wrong."
Schumacher's Benetton B194 has come under suspicion on numerous occasions over the years and in 1994 piqued the interest of Ayrton Senna--so much so that the three-time champion expressed similar doubts about the car's legality after watching Schumacher's performance in the opening races of that season--prior to his fatal crash in Italy. Later that season, FIA inspectors discovered electronic code within the car's software that appeared to be "launch control," but Benetton claimed that it was not active.
Verstappen now says otherwise.
"There were electronic driver aids," he told Nusport. "It was never mentioned, but I'm convinced, and when I later asked [team boss] Flavio Briatore he replied 'Let's not talk about it.' So I know enough now.
"You see now [at Mercedes GP]: Michael is also simply depending on the [car he has]. For most people, he was God . . . [but] he is not superman."
Comments
Post a Comment