Michael Schumacher says Mercedes GP still not competitive enough to compete for podiums – Formula 1
The seven-time Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher has said that Mercedes GP are still not competitive enough to compete for podiums against McLaren, Ferrari or Red Bull Racing.
Schumacher finished in 4th place in the 2nd free practice session of the European Grand Prix this weekend after scoring a very competitive performance throughout the session. The former world champion was less than a tenth short of
the current championship leader Sebastian Vettel’s fastest time of the session which landed in 3rd place on the timesheets of the session in total.
“In the morning session we still had some issues to sort out, and in the afternoon we just worked consistently on our car. All of us are aware, though, that under normal circumstances we will not yet be strong enough to fight for the podium, and will most
likely find ourselves starting around the fourth row,” Schumacher told the media.
He added that he still took the session’s outcome positively before revealing that the team spent most of its time tweaking his car’s setup.
“We had a typical Friday practice situation, running through different setup possibilities and variations. As usual on Friday, our focus was more on the long runs, and all in all I am very happy because we managed to do a lot of work,” he said.
Fernando Alonso led the 2nd free practice session and quite surprisingly, the session produced some very unpredictable results as Lewis Hamilton finished in 2nd place in the timesheets. Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull finished in 3rd
place in the timesheets while his teammate Mark Webber finished in 7th place.
Nico Rosberg, Schumacher’s teammate finished in 8th place as he was unable to cope up with the seven-time world champion’s time in the session. Nico has been faster than Michael at most of the races of the 2011 Formula 1 season but it seems that
the former champion might have the advantage this weekend.
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