Brawn starting to lose confidence in Schumacher?
It is widely accepted in Formula One circles that Michael Schumacher and Ross Brawn have an unshakable friendship bound by years of work and success.
Every title win that the German legend has clinched, Brawn has masterminded with military precision, but those were back in the glory days when the dynamic duo had the golden touch.
With a season of mediocrity at Mercedes comes the first splattering of drizzle in paradise as cracks appear in their relationship. In a recent interview with the official Formula One website Brawn was asked if he thought that Schumacher would have been retained after this season on the back of his performances; he replied: “To be honest, probably not."
The Mercedes supremo expanded by saying: "But because we know Michael, we know that there is still a lot to come because Michael is in many fields more talented than others - in driving and in the co-operation with the team. The team are very happy with the way Michael is contributing.
"If he were a rookie we surely would have asked ourselves if he has the capacity to advance. With Michael we know that he has."
There’s no denying Schumacher has had a bad season. When he announced his return to the sport you’d have been hard pushed to find anyone offering odds of value on him clinching the title. However 15 races later he lies 10th in the championships with 46 points, hasn’t come close to a win and has been comprehensively out-driven by his teammate Nico Rosberg.
It’s hard to say if Brawn’s words are meant as a sly swipe at the seven-times world champion or a “prove me wrong” type statement.
In either case, it just hasn’t happened for “Schumi”. On the surface it seemed to be a match made in heaven, arguably the greatest driver in the sport with a team you would hand-pick for the pointy-chinned racer.
In their previous guise as BrawnGP, Brawn’s team steamrolled the opposition and comfortably took the championship last season. Jenson Button won it but in truth the car was so superior any driver of quality could have won it. So by shifting the team to Germany, giving it a Mercedes engine and reuniting Schumacher and Brawn they were surely on to a winner.
However the stuff of dreams turned into the stuff of nightmares. Schumacher hasn’t troubled his young replacements at the top of the championship at all and left fans wondering why he even bothered to come back.
Brawn shed light on Schumacher’s poor form and how he has been out-driven by his teammate by saying: “Michael’s driving style depends on a strong front tyre that can withstand his hard braking and the steering manoeuvres that he prefers.
“I have to say that this year’s front tyre is very uncommon. Next year we expect the Pirelli tyres will work better for Michael’s driving style. In 2011 all drivers start from zero, so any disadvantage Michael might have will disappear.
“If you take the telemetry data in fast corners or his reaction time when the car breaks away, I don’t see any difference.
“There he’s still the old Michael. But in the slow corners he cannot make full use of the tyres as Nico can. Nico has put the bar very high in this respect. I predict that in 2011 we will again see the true Michael - when we’ve delivered him a better car.”
It’s quite clear the car is not set up for Schumacher, even Button came out to say the car is probably more suited to his style, but there’s no denying Schumi has been absurdly slow. There has been “The Trulli train” where drivers queue up behind the hapless Jarno Trulli, but Schumacher has given him a run for his money this season with the noticeable “Schumacher snake.”
Such is the confidence of the man he will not give up and there’s no doubt he will be back next year. He won’t have the excuse of rustiness or car set-up to fall back on next time and will need to be competing because although they struggled this season, Mercedes have the potential to gatecrash the top teams championship party in 2011.
Let’s just hope Schumacher and Brawn are still talking when next season starts.
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