MUNICH: Thomas Mueller hailed Bayern Munich’s “phenomenal” achievement after they were confirmed Bundesliga champions for the ninth season in a row on Saturday.
Robert Lewandowski grabbed a hat-trick in a 6-0 thrashing of Borussia Moenchengladbach at the Allianz Arena in Munich.
Bayern were confirmed champions even before kick-off after Borussia Dortmund’s 3-2 win at home to second-placed RB Leipzig earlier in the day sent the title to Munich.
“Nine titles in a row, that’s crazy. And I was there each time. I’m very grateful for that,” said Mueller, 31, who now holds the joint record of 10 Bundesliga titles with team-mate David Alaba.
“It shows the development of this club over the years.
“It’s phenomenal, it’s a huge amount of work every year with a great team.”
Head coach Hansi Flick has now won seven titles in 18 months, but will leave to be replaced by RB Leipzig boss Julian Nagelsmann next season.
“That performance was worthy of champions,” said Flick.
Mueller scored Bayern’s second goal while Kingsley Coman and Leroy Sane also got on the scoresheet alongside Lewandowski, who now has 39 league goals this season, one short of Gerd Mueller’s all-time Bundesliga record.
“We wanted to show on the pitch that we are German champions,” said Lewandowski, who insisted he will “keep stepping on the gas” as he chases Mueller’s record with two games left.
Flick says Lewandowski is writing himself into the club’s folklore.
“Gerd Mueller was my idol when I was young, but what Gerd Mueller was in my youth, Lewandowski is today,” he said.
“If he manages the record, it will have been more than deserved.”
Club captain Manuel Neuer admitted it was a “bizarre situation” to be crowned champions while still warming up.
“We were just getting ready, there are a few TVs in the dressing rooms,” said the Germany goalkeeper.
“We realized that we had become champions and started congratulating each other.”
Thomas Mueller, a one-club wonder who won his first Bundesliga title with Bayern back in 2009/10, said he never dreamed of such success when he joined the Bavarian giants as a schoolboy.
“When you play here as a little boy, you don’t think you’ll ever play in the first team at FC Bayern. You’re just happy when you get tickets for home games,” he quipped.
Mueller hails Bayern Munich’s ‘phenomenal’ ninth league title in a row
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Mueller hails Bayern Munich’s ‘phenomenal’ ninth league title in a row
- Bayern were confirmed champions before kick-off after Borussia Dortmund's 3-2 win at home to second-placed RB Leipzig earlier in the day
- "Nine titles in a row, that's crazy. And I was there each time," said Mueller
Aston Martin says its car risks giving drivers ‘nerve damage’ and can’t finish F1 season-opener
- Aston Martin has predicted it is unlikely to finish Formula 1’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix without its drivers risking suffering permanent nerve damage
MELBOURNE: Aston Martin has predicted it is unlikely to finish Formula 1’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday without its drivers risking suffering permanent nerve damage.
Adrian Newey, the F1 car design great who’s heading into his first race as Aston Martin’s team principal, said Thursday the team’s Honda power unit causes vibrations which could damage the hands of drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. Neither will likely be able to tolerate even half of the 58-lap race distance, Newey added.
Aston Martin had a poor preseason, often slower even than new team Cadillac and it logged the fewest laps of all 11 teams.
“That vibration (transmitted from Honda’s power unit) into the chassis is causing a few reliability problems,” said Newey.
“Mirrors falling off the air, tail lights falling off, that sort of thing, which we are having to address. But, the much more significant problem with that is that that vibration is transmitted ultimately into the driver’s fingers.
“So Fernando is of the feeling that he can’t do more than 25 laps consecutively before he will risk permanent nerve damage into his hands. Lance is of the opinion that he can’t do more than 15 laps before that threshold.
“We are going to have to be very heavily restricted on how many laps we do in the race until we get on top of the source of the vibration — and to improve the vibration at source.”
Despite the long list of issues, Newey says the AMR26 car has tremendous potential as F1 starts a new era of regulations.
He argued the chassis is F1’s fifth-best behind the expected top-teams Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull and that, following an aggressive development program, has the potential to run at the front at some point in 2026.
Alonso, though, is keeping the faith until Friday practice in Melbourne, where he believes fixes on the car might provide a sunnier outlook.
“For us, it’s just vibrating everything,” the two-time F1 champion said.
“But it’s not only for us. The car is struggling a little bit, so that’s why we have some issues, some reliability problems that made our days slightly short.
“Since (pre-season testing in) Bahrain, there were a couple of tests done and some of the solutions are implemented on the car now, so (I’m) curious to see what (happens) tomorrow (and) if we can improve.”
Its disappointing performance has been variously attributed to a compressed design time due to late arrival; Honda’s need to rebuild its research and development capabilities after leaving Red Bull, the challenge of producing a new in-house gearbox, and the team running a so-far unproven fuels partner in Aramco.
But it’s the side effects that will likely sideline its cars early in Sunday’s race at Albert Park.
