It is going to feel like he was never away. Oozing confidence and the swagger of a champion, looking fit as a fiddle at 41 and giving as good as he got from those prepared to remind him of his days in Formula One that were less than glorious, Michael Schumacher returned to the biggest stage in motor sport yesterday.
After his long reign at Ferrari and a three-year retirement, this time the seven-times world champion was not decked out in the bright red livery of the Prancing Horse but the silver of Mercedes, a company positively purring with delight at having persuaded Formula One’s most successful driver to return at the wheel of one of its “Silver Arrows”.
Presented at the company’s Stuttgart headquarters alongside Nico Rosberg, his German compatriot and new team-mate, Schumacher made it clear that he has no qualms about what his hotly awaited comeback is all about. There was only “one target”, he said at a stage-managed event in front of 600 guests, and that is more championships. And he admitted he is champing at the bit to get going.
“I’m hot,” he said, when asked if he was sure he was up to it, with the first pre-season official Formula One test now only a few days away. “It’s just taking far too long to get going and we can’t wait for next week.”
There was always an edginess and a coldness about Schumacher, who never gave an inch on the track or off it and he was back to his best on that score when confronted with the legacy of a career punctuated by some of the sport’s worst episodes of gamesmanship.
It was put to him that Rosberg’s father, Keke, the former world champion, remarked after Schumacher stopped his car on purpose at the Rascasse corner during qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix in 2006 that Formula One would be better off without him. So how did he feel now about driving alongside Rosberg’s son? “Good,” came Schumacher’s monosyllabic reply.
And the German responded acerbically when it was put to him that his return to the grid was really a way for him to atone for his past misjudgments and show the motor sport world that he can win the right way. Schumacher was having none of that.
“Yeah,” he replied, “I’m sure 91 wins and seven titles, you only win them in the bad way, absolutely, you are right.”
The moments of tension were few on a day when Schumacher celebrated a new beginning that he hopes will bring more titles. “The main reason I am doing this is because I am thrilled about it,” he said. “I feel big excitement to just drive and compete at the highest level of motor sport. I have been doing it for two or three years in go-karts, and other categories, which was great, but now I say, ‘Why not do something at a higher level?’ ”
While it was a great day for Schumacher and Mercedes, which bought the team that Ross Brawn steered to the constructors’ and drivers’ championships last year, it was another painful one for Honda. The “Silver Arrow” presented by Mercedes was in fact last year’s “Brawn GP” car, built by Honda in 2008 at a cost of hundreds of millions. Having sold the team to Brawn, the Japanese have since watched their racing machine capture two championships and now the signature of the sport’s most successful driver.
It emerged yesterday that a tweak to the new Formula One points system is likely. A meeting of the Formula One Sporting Working Group decided on Friday to reward race winners with 25 points, while awarding points down to tenth place. The latest points system, which has yet to be formally approved by the FIA, is: 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1.
Source:The Times
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