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The Return of a Champion: Part 2

Sport

Formula One is taking a brief hiatus to allow the hard working souls both at the track and the factories to take some respite after the arduous run of events in June and July. This brief period of repose will act as a much needed opportunity to recharge batteries before the final third of the motorsport season, but for many it will be a quiet moment of reflection, regrouping and refocus with seven races left to contest.

At the start of the season, I wrote a blog entitled ‘Return of a Champion’, hypothesising over the much vaunted comeback of multi world champion Michael Schumacher. I was never a massive Schumacher fan, if truth be told, but there was certainly no questioning his legendary status within Formula 1 and the legacy that he left behind. In the space of five months and 12 races, that impressive legacy has been tarnished, with the Hungarian Grand Prix representing an all new low.

There has been barely a recognisable glimmer of the champion in the 12 races contested this season. From the early reconnaissance races it became quickly clear that the new generation of racers would not be intimidated by Schumacher’s admittedly impressive CV. In Nico Rosberg, Schumacher has a compatriot team-mate who has seemingly thrived in a new home with a highly successful new team-mate. The championship points tally with two-thirds of the season gone says it all: Rosberg 94, Schumacher 38.

The sheer arrogance and stupidity of his move against Rubens Barrichello down the start-finish straight in Hungary last Sunday was perhaps the most accurate portrayal of 2010-spec Michael Schumacher. The frustration of battling for tenth position and a solitary point (that in his heyday would have been four positions off the final points-paying position), the reawakened memories of Austria 2002 courtesy of the universally panned Alonso-Massa switch in Hockenheim (and Rubens’ own vocal opposition to what happened eight years ago), and the need to remind himself who is boss against a rejuvenated Rubens whose Williams-Cosworth was lapping some 2.5s quicker than the Mercedes.

Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that the Michael Schumacher of old was a saint, far from it, but his attitude and actions on Sunday were too much even by his standards. The steward’s driver representative in Hungary, Derek Warwick, has since said that Schumacher would have been black flagged from the race had there been more laps to assess the situation. Perhaps the backlash that has occurred since – from the public, from the media, from his peers, from the sport in general - will have a greater positive outcome.

Schumacher has since publicly apologised to Barrichello – something that would never have happened at the height of his career – and perhaps that in itself is a sign that we are witnessing Michael Schumacher version 2.0.

I am of the widely held view that drivers should earn their places in Formula 1 on merit, and Michael still has the ability to fight for good results, but he needs to look back on the last 12 races and rethink his approach to racing in 2010. He cannot rest on the laurels of past success for present glory; he needs to regain the respect of his rivals. With classic race tracks Spa and Monza next up on the calendar, it would be the perfect time for classic Michael Schumacher to make the reappearance many hoped we would see at the start of the season.

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