Michael Schumacher dispels retirement rumours
Seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher has firmly discounted speculation that he will retire at the end of the 2010 F1 championship season. The 41-year-old maestro, who signed a two-year deal
with Mercedes, is determined to see out his contract in the quest to develop Mercedes into a high-performance team.
His comments came after former team manager and BBC pundit Eddie Jordan predicted that the German would quit, stating that, “My guess is Michael has probably come to the conclusion that despite his undoubted
brilliance, he’s not going to be able to drag that into a winning car.”
Yet for a driver who has 91 wins, 154 podiums, 68 pole positions and 76 fastest laps to his name, the hardy veteran is unlikely to back down easily, despite being consistently outperformed by teammate
Nico Rosberg this season.
“You cannot get rid of me, let's put it this way,” a resilient Schumacher told reporters in Singapore. “Our goal is to win the championship, better earlier than later,” he admitted. “But it is a process
and we are not magic, so we trying to maximise our opportunity in deciding early to prepare for 2011. The process has started naturally, whereas the teams that are contending for the championship have to keep doing a programme – we hope that will give us a
slight advantage for restarting in 2011.”
Schumacher acknowledged that no matter how accomplished the team or driver, building a co-dependent relationship capable of scoring victories is a gradual evolution. “It is a process of getting things
together with the engineer, working very closely and setting up as much as possible to our needs,” he explained. “We are more limited, we have tyres that are given and a car that has a certain characteristic, and certainly, in a way, I do feel that the harmony
between these two components and myself is not yet given. We are working to make it in harmony. It is a process of still growing together, setting up and creating the structure to be ready for next year. Not only in the factory in [the] developing of the car,
but from the team side, increasing the number of ideas. And whenever you go out, even with a car that hasn't developed, you still learn.”
He concluded optimistically, “[In Monza] we did quite a reasonable job from my point of view and I guess we can have a few more reasonable results this year.”
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