On the road again: Michael Schumacher makes a comeback
The pressure is on: after a three year pause Michael Schumacher—the first German to ever win the Formula One (F1) Championship—is back behind the wheel, this time with the support of Mercedes behind him.
Photo: picture alliance dpa EPA/ALI HAIDER +++(c) dpa - Bildfunk+++
After retiring from racing in 2006, Schumacher told the press that he couldn’t imagine ever returning. But now, he says, the three-year rest has left him feeling re-charged, “as if my batteries were fully loaded.” “I feel like a child looking forward to Christmas. The decision to make my comeback feels like a long time ago now and I can hardly wait for the season to get underway in Bahrain.”
The 41-year-old has a tough act to follow: his own. As a seven-time world champion, his fans are unlikely to accept any defeat lightly. But Schumacher remains confident: We “will not … be in the position to win right from the start” he told one interviewer. “It is not the start which is important; it is the finish.”
However his fans react, since announcing his comeback, interest in Formula 1 has spiked dramatically. Schumacher is a legendary Racing Driver: 250 Grand Prixs, 91 Grand Prix victories, 154 times on the podium, 68 pole positions, 1,369 world championship points, seven times Formula One world champion – the most successful driver in motorsport history, millennium world champion.
The Schumacher phenomenon: he starts as a kid on a kart track near Cologne. The lad has talent. 21-year-old “Schumi” first appears on the Formula 1 circuit on 25 August 1991. Hockenheim, Monza, Silverstone... He then reigns over the motorsport elite for 15 years. A brilliant era. He becomes an icon in the cockpit of Scuderia Ferrari cars, which he starts driving in 1996. He redefines the profession of the racing driver.
Playboy-like daredevilry has no place in his strategy. Precision and perfection as opposed to post-juvenile irresponsibility. His ambition pushes him to his limit; he has the fitness of a marathon runner, driving expertise, technological know-how – and a family as a counterbalance. A man who lives in the danger zone. He occasionally seems imprisoned there. Sometimes he displays another aspect of his personality. When the tsunami rages in Asia, he spontaneously donates ten million dollars to the relief effort. When his mother dies, he drives wearing a black armband, wins convincingly – and weeps. The Schumacher phenomenon: he’s switched to a motorbike. For fun. He’s a speed addict. And now in 2010 the Schumacher phenomenon goes on.
But will Schumacher take home another world championship title this year? That is the question on every fan’s mind as the media speculates and the countdown begins to the first Formula 1 race of the season, which will take palce on Sunday in Bahrain.
A schedule of the season’s races is available here.
