After weeks of speculation Mercedes confirmed that Michael Schumacher will make a comeback to race for the team next season alongside fellow German Nico Rosberg.
Schumacher, who retired at the end of 2006, has signed a 7m Euro contract in order to race for the Mercedes GP Petronas F1 team at the age of 41, bidding to add to his career more victories or even another world championship.
In his presentation conference Michael Schumacher quoted about his decision: "Mercedes GP Petronas represents a new challenge for me both in a sporting and a personal context. It is a new chapter in my racing career and I am really looking forward to working with my old friend Ross Brawn and my companions from my days with the Mercedes Junior Programme.
I have no doubt at all that the team will be really strong. They showed by winning the two world championships that there is meshing a fascinating mixture of high professionalism and deepest passion. The relation between the competence of Mercedes and the current world champion team is extremely attractive and promises a good performance."
Marriage out of heaven?
It was often said the combination Ferrari, Michael Schumacher, Ross Brawn and Jean Todt was a marriage made in heaven, and the five championship titles Schumacher scored while driving for Ferrari proved that it was indeed a winning combination. Schumacher and Brawn had already been very successful during their time with the Benetton team, when Schumacher won the championship in 1994 and 1995. But with the best German driver of all times now onboard, and Nico Rosberg, a young and promising German driver, combined with a completely revived Mercedes team, a team that has the strong aspiration to bring back the era and successes of the Mercedes "Silberpfeile", this could also become a marriage made in heaven.
Ross Brawn commented: "I am delighted that we can confirm today that Michael will make his much-anticipated return to Formula One next year and drive for our Mercedes GP Petronas team. As seven-time world champion, Michael's outstanding record in Formula One speaks for itself and I am looking forward to working with him again. With the completion of our driver line-up, I believe that we now have the most exciting partnership in Formula One with Michael and Nico, who provide the perfect mix of talent, experience, speed and youth. We can now turn our full attention to the preparations for the new season and everyone at Mercedes GP Petronas is extremely excited about the challenge ahead.”
Explaining Schumacher’s previous Mercedes relationship, Norbert Haug, Vice-President of Mercedes-Benz Motorsports, added “As part of the Mercedes Junior Programme, Michael had raced in Group C sports cars and competed in a few DTM races. Ross Brawn, then our opponent at Jaguar, quickly realised Michael's talent and they went on to win all seven of his drivers' world championship titles together at Benetton and Ferrari. Our sporting ambition has always been that Michael should drive again where his professional career had started and Michael knew that. We often joked about it after the races and 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."
Did Schumacher retire too early?
So what happened in 2006? Did Schumacher retire too early? The 2007 Ferrari was certainly potent enough to score yet another championship, as Kimi Rakkonen who replaced him, clinched the drivers' title that year. At the end of 2006 Schumacher's contract with Ferrari ended, and Schumacher was forced into a difficult position, Ferrari had already contracted Raikkonen for the 2007 season early in 2006, and if Schumacher wouldn't retire, his friend and team mate Brazilian Felipe Massa would have to leave the team. Schumacher took his time to make his decision, but during the 2006 Monza Grand Prix he announced he would quit Formula One.
Will Schumacher's return be successful?
In the past many F1 world champions returned to racing; Niki Lauda, Mario Andretti, Alan Jones, Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Jacques Villeneuve. Yet, only Lauda and Prost managed to do so, the others miserably failed and couldn't even win a race, except Nigel Mansell, who scored his last Formula One win during the 1994 Australian Grand Prix.
Who are his 2010 opponents?
F1's most sucessful rule is that a driver's first and major opponent that you ought to beat is your team-mate. Thus for Schumacher case, the young promising and well experienced Nico Rosberg is his No1 opponent.
Secondly, the former F1 world champions are very important opponents, especially when the 2009 newly-crowned champion Jenson Button is teamed up with the 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton in McLaren Mercedes.
Moreover, a significant opponent is another ex World champion Fernando Alonso who deposed him as a world champion during the Renault donmination era in 2005 and 2006 and he will be driving the scarlet red Ferrari, Schumacher's previous and more succesful team
Lastly, the two almost world champions Felipe Massa, Schumacher's good friend will be back after his accident in Hungary, but has to prove he is the same quick as he was before his accident and Sebastian Vettel who is another very talented driver, losing the 2009 title mainly as a result of his own errors.
