Michael Schumacher remains confident
Michael Schumacher, seven times champion and according to the official Formula One website, "statistically the greatest driver the sport has ever seen”, vows to slug it out at least one more season and promises to add an eighth championship to his trophy cabinet.
The German driver refuses to get bogged down with his mediocre comeback season and claims that there is still enough gas in the tank to regain his top. Schumi joined Ferrari in 1996 and went on to win five consecutive driver’s titles from 2000-2004. After retiring in 2006, the veteran decided to continue his marriage with the scarlet Italian team as an advisor. However, anything less than an on track experience was insufficient to quench the German ace’s thirst for speed which effectively saw him sign a three year contract to drive with the Mercedes Team in 2010 and to be reunited with his old Ferrari pal Ross Brawn.
Questioned about his season so far, Schumi answered in a rather defensive manner, "Am I perfectly happy with my own performance? That is probably the wrong thing to say. There is an expectation out there, but you have to be realistic. To be out three years, and start where I did in a car that doesn't allow me do it, is unrealistic".
The statement clearly highlights Schumi’s concern for answering his critics, who believe he is getting too old for the sport. The Mercedes has indeed been an inferior machine to its Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull counterparts, as the team sits in fourth spot in the constructor standings. While constructor statistics second the German’s remarks, it would be worth taking a peek at the driver standings. With seven races to go in the 2010-2011 season, Schumacher finds himself in 9th spot with a meager 38 points while his team-mate Nico Rosberg – theoretically at the mercy of the same machine and specifications – finds himself in 7th place with a respectable 94 points.
The incident in the closing stages of his home Grand Prix would have drawn out all his critics with a ‘reunion’ with old Ferrari team mate Rubens Barrichello. It was the last lap of the race where the hometown hero found himself trying to hold onto his 10th spot – the last scoring spot – from an evidently faster Barrichello. It was close, too close for comfort as the Brazilian avoided the side wall by a mere millimeter. To the apparent unsporting conduct the German argued that he was moving onto the right to induce him to overtake him from the left where there was more space.
What exactly the German intended is perhaps something Schumi shall take to the grave, however, Barichello adopted a much more vocal approach and was hard to misinterpret with his straight-forward comments, “If he wants to go to heaven, in the event he is going to heaven, I don’t want to go before him. Thank God, I was lucky the wall finished where it did because I was millimeters from it”.
When taking a little dive down memory lane, the name Jacques Villeneuve comes to mind with regard to comeback seasons. The Canadian won the championship in 1997 with the Williams team, however failed to make much of an impression in periodic comeback spells with BAR Honda, Renault and Saubers BMW – coincidently, often out qualified by his team-mates.
Controversy is something that few drivers have eluded in their Formula one career. While Michael Schumacher had to endure more than his fair share of accusations, the German has gone further than most mortals in injecting the Formula One name deep into the realms of Motorsports as we know it today. With two more years to go on his contract and potentially a car that suits his style of driving come next season, we might bear witness to one of the most challenging F1 seasons and those that doubted him on his reappearing act might be forced to bite their lips into silence.
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