Amr Ebeid (Cairo)
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix did not smile at one of the “Formula-1” champions, as it did with the legendary Lewis Hamilton, who won it 5 times, and following a “bad” season during which he did not win any race, the most prominent “Yas lover” hopes that the Emirati circuit will be a ” The amulet of good luck” that ends his suffering throughout the year, in order to restore the confidence he needs to return to the podiums, and challenge the “curse of the greats”!
And because the world did not know greater than the “seven wonders of Formula” that Schumacher and Hamilton won, the “duo” was a living example of the curse that afflicted record holders through the ages, and following the British equaled the immortal German number in 2020, when he won the seventh world championship in his career. After a “quadruple in a row” that began in 2017, he received an unexpected blow at the end of 2021 following a controversial incident in front of champion Verstappen, to be satisfied with the runner-up, before the resounding collapse this year.
As for the German Michael Schumacher, he initially escaped from it following the “rare five” equation of the Argentine icon Juan Manuel Fangio in 2002, but he also stopped at “number 7” in 2004 to be struck by the “curse of the greats” in the following season, in which the Spaniard Fernando Alonso dropped him. With a humiliating difference of 71 points, Schumacher won only one prize in 2005, following he was forced to retire in 6 other races, most of which ended in accidents and severe damage. He started since the first race at the time in Australia, then announced his retirement following finishing the 2006 championship, before To step back and return until 2012, when he finished 13th, and then retire completely, before suffering the famous skiing accident in 2013!
65 years ago, the Argentine Fangio rose to the top of the “Formula-1” races by being crowned 5 times world champion in 1957, but the 1958 championship witnessed the end of the legend of Juan with strange events as well, as he failed to qualify for the American race, participated in only two races, and announced His retirement in the middle of the season following the French race, which was won by Briton Mike Hawthorn, was enough to crown him world champion before he retired suddenly, then died in a car accident only 3 months following his coronation.
Frenchman Alain Prost was very close to equaling Fangio’s record before Schumacher, as he reached the fourth coronation in 1993, but as usual things did not go smoothly, as Prost decided to retire immediately due to disagreements over extending his contract with the Williams team, but later reports confirmed that the transfer His arch-rival, the Brazilian Ayrton Senna at the end of 1993 to Williams precipitated Prost’s retirement, and strangely enough, Senna was killed in 1994, a few months following his controversial transfer, and following the worst start in Senna’s history during the races, he suffered a fatal accident in Italy!
Finally, the “curse of the greats” continued its strikes to hit Sebastian Vettel following achieving the “Quartet” also in 2013, as his record harvest stopped at this point following losing the 2014 championship to Hamilton in a strange scenario similar to what preceded it, as the 2014 season began with problems in the motor of his car that prevented him from racing. The first Australian, and this was repeated twice in Monaco and Austria, and the German did not win any race at the time, and he finished fifth, 217 points behind champion Hamilton.