Michael Schumacher will make F1 comeback with Mercedes Grand Prix
Schumacher will make a remarkable comeback next season with the Mercedes Grand Prix team, it was confirmed on Wednesday.
The seven-time Formula One world champion quit Grand Prix racing at the end of the 2006 season after winning an all-time record 91 races (among 154 podium finishes) and 68 pole positions. Since then he has served as a trackside consultant for Ferrari, with which he won five of his titles.
Schumacher will partner with Nico Rosberg in an all-German driving squad. Many Formula One insiders had anticipated a one-season deal, but Schumacher's new contract is for three years. Mercedes bought a stake in the former Brawn GP after the season and renamed the team.
Schumacher, who will be 41 years old on Jan. 3, 2010, began his professional career as a member of the Mercedes-Benz Junior program in 1990-91, racing Group C sports-racing cars and DTM touring cars.
The German automotive brand paid for his F1 debut with Jordan Grand Prix in the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix, and his recruitment is the biggest feather so far in the cap of Norbert Haug, the director of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport in Stuttgart. Haug has wanted Schumacher to join McLaren-Mercedes for many years but the driver always politely rebuffed his advances, seemingly wedded to Ferrari.
But Schumacher revealed today that the new Mercedes
GP approach came not from Haug, but from Ross Brawn, the engineer who was working alongside him when he won all of his Grands Prix with both Benetton Formula and Ferrari.
Schumacher said: “The motivation is pretty straightforward. The call I got from Ross at the end of November concerning the chance to go racing, Mercedes being involved, I felt great. I never left the racetrack. I was tired of Formula One by the end of 2006, but in three years of absence, I got back all the energy that I am feeling right now. I played around with motorbikes, and I feel ready for some serious stuff now.”
Last August, Schumacher agreed to stand in for the injured Felipe Massa at Ferrari. But the plan amounted to nothing because he had not fully recovered from a neck injury sustained in a motorcycle accident earlier in the year. Coming so close to a comeback evidently motivated him, and he was clearly disappointed with the outcome.
“Before I gave a final OK, I made sure that I was sure myself, and I can say 100 percent that the neck is no further issue,” he said. “Unfortunately it was too close to the accident in the summer when I tried for Ferrari, but the time now is enough to have healed completely. I can do everything I used to do, no problem. For me, this partnership closes the circle. Mercedes supported me for so many years when I began my career, and now I can hopefully give something back to the brand with the star."
Haug commented: “In April 1991, when I had been in charge of the Mercedes-Benz Motorsport program for just six months, Michael was standing beside me on the balcony one evening. Without the slightest doubt, he said in a low voice: ‘It's about time I got into Formula One.'
"Michael had just turned 22 years of age and four months later, he made his debut at Spa. Mercedes-Benz helped him to this point and the rest is history: seven world championships, more than any racing driver, 91 Grand Prix wins, more than any racing driver. Michael has more of everything than every other driver. Our sporting ambition has always been that Michael should drive again where his career had started, and Michael knew that.
“We often joked about it after the races and we discussed the prospect seriously several times during the last 14 years in Formula One. It didn't happen in 1995, it didn't happen in 1998 and it didn't happen in 2005. I am delighted that it will now happen in 2010. I am very much looking forward to working with Michael, and everybody at Mercedes-Benz and Daimler extends a very warm welcome to our 'apprentice' of 19 years ago. That apprentice is now the most successful racing driver of all time.”
Brawn observed: “Michael's outstanding record speaks for itself, and I believe we now have the most exciting partnership in Formula One with him and Nico, who provide the perfect mix of talent, experience, speed and youth.”
This article was last updated on: 12/23/09, 09:02 et
Read more: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20091223/F1/912239998#ixzz0aWX4wdRk
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