Formula One Great Michael Schumacher: Is his career finally over?
The seven time world champion and the multi-record holding Formula One driver Michael Schumacher has an immense fan following and his return to the sport this season was hugely welcomed. Schumacher, who finished his last season in 2nd place after a season long championship battle with Alonso, was expected by his fans to come back and sweep off his opponents.
Michael Schumacher has been associated with Formula One for the last 20 years and after his 16-year racing career in his first stint, Schumacher turned everything to gold. Today, the German holds 33 Formula One records against his name. With such a ruthless domination of motorsport, Schumacher was hailed as peerless driver and many expected that Schumacher’s bond with current champion Mercedes GP will see him add to his record tally. Much to the chagrin of his supporters, it wasn’t to be.
Schumacher has so far come up with less than ordinary performances in his comeback campaign for Formula One racing. As far as his qualifying goes, the German hasn’t been able to grab a better position than 5th on the grid and has managed to win the15th position in the starting line. In his ten races so far, including a retirement and 3 finishes outside the points table, Schumacher has managed to grab 36 championship points in this season. While Mercedes GP does not have the qualifying pace for this season, it was expected that the veteran will show some sparks of yesteryears and will finish the race higher than his qualifying position. Even this was too much to hope for because finishing at the same positions would bring him to 43 points – 7 higher than what he already has. From Schumacher’s perspective, the qualifying turned out to be a horror show with races proving to be bigger disasters.
A better measure of Schumacher’s performance is his team-mate Nico Rosberg who has scored 90 points to date and has out-qualified Schumacher on eight occasions. However, that is not all the German will have to worry about. Even though the Mercedes GP team and Schumacher himself insists that the latter half of the season is bound to reverse fortunes for the German and despite the claims that the best is yet to come from the old veteran, rumours are already surfacing about his exit from the sport at the end of this season.
The speculation about Schumacher’s farewell carries some weight as there are strong possibilities of Kimi Raikkonen’s return and likelihood of joining the Mercedes GP team.
McLaren’s Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh has already submitted his vote in Raikkonen’s favour and has said that the Finn’s return to the top of the line racing will make Formula One richer. The two spent 5 years together during Raikkonen’s stay with the English team from 2002-06. Whitmarsh believes that Raikkonen is extremely intelligent and talented and has been underestimated in the past.
Whitmarsh is not the only one eager to see Kimi back at the track as Mercedes’ Owner Norbert Haug has confirmed that he paid a visit to Kimi Raikkonen in the recent past. Kimi Raikkonen, who was dropped by Ferrari in favour of Fernando Alonso after last season, now drives in the World Rally Championship and has said that he is open to an F1 move provided he gets to drive for one of the top teams. Haug has not made an offer to Kimi as yet but instead has said that it will be the Finn’s decision.
British legend Sir Jackie Stewart also shared his comments about Schumacher’s future and said that Schumacher may retire at the end of the season. Stewart believes that Schumacher should never have retired from the sport and his 3 year absence is making it difficult for him to settle. Jackie added that once the decision to retire was made, coming back wasn’t a good idea as Schumacher had already won everything and could lose from here.
While many experts believe that it’s time for Schumacher to bid his final farewell to the track, his fans would want him to stay and shine again. Their idea would be that if the German giant has not pulled off a few victories for once, it doesn’t mean that the caterpillar cannot emerge from the cocoon once more.
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