And what if Webber had knocked the Brawn into the fence and back out into the path of the assembled field bearing down on turn 1? Is a ballsy move worth destroying several F1 cars and possibly injuring a few drivers? Mark said he didn't know Rubens was there, he could have hit him much harder. I don't think I ever saw Clark or Hill swerve over on someone like that, and they were far better drivers than MS and sportsmen as well.
Lonny
I really don't think Webber did that on purpose - he thought he had space and moved into it. Not really the same as the swerve Schumi was famous for. First corner or start line accidents are the most common of all in F1, but you can't say that many or most of them have anything to do with a driver doing the pole position swerve. Usually it's a few lines back where the jinking ends up taking someone's wing off and then all hell breaks loose. Or someone overdrives the inside of turn one. Those are the most common. I could well be mistaken, but I cannot recall one time that Schumi actually took out another car with his swerve. It's intimidating, but it only worked for him because other drivers were indimidated by him. Intimidation is a big part of racing - plenty do it. Look at virtually everyone who has raced in front of Rubens. They know he is easily intimidated, so they all do it, and he is terrified to make on-track passes (and then whines about his pit crew blowing his race when he is counting on doing pit-stop passes). If somone stood their ground and both cars went out, then perhaps Schumi would have been less likely to try it again. Anyone who has raced has come up against intimidating drivers, and there are two ways to deal with them - get around them as soon as they make a small error so it doesn't matter, or make them pay by holding your line. Few were fast enough to do the former, and few had the guts to do that latter. As for him being a cheat - the FIA clarified that years ago. One move is ok, a second sudden swerve (back to the racing line) was forbidden. I don't look at that as cheating anyway. In motorsports generally it is the teams that cheat. The drivers can be unsportsmanlike, but not actually cheaters (although I would call the off-track passing moves of last year cases of the drivers cheating).
Again, I have to clarify - I am no fan of Schumi, and for many of the same reasons you guys are. But I don't think he got where he is simply by cheating or being in the best car the whole time (sometimes). He is to me the most phenomenal driver of the time, and maybe all time. I'd still like to see Vettel kick his butt.