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Herbert: Schumacher likely to call it quits
Source: Agencies |
May 11, 2011, Wednesday
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MICHAEL Schumacher is likely to retire at the end of the season after failing to beat a talented new generation of drivers since his return to Formula One, according to former teammate Johnny Herbert.
Seven-time world champion Schumacher has struggled since his comeback after three years on the sidelines in late 2009, failing to get on the podium in 23 starts and coming nowhere close to a 92nd grand prix victory.
"He did not return just to run in the middle order," Briton Herbert, Schumacher's teammate at Benetton in 1995, said in a column in Abu Dhabi's The Nation newspaper. "His dream was to win again and make Mercedes race winners, but it has not turned out that way and I would be surprised if he chose to continue."
Herbert said age - Schumacher is 42 - was not a factor and that drivers like Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso as well as Schumacher's Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg had just raised the bar.
"The simple fact is that he is no longer the best driver on the track," Herbert wrote. "Schumacher has not lost any of his skill - the new generation of young drivers are just better than him. It is a case that the level required to win in F1 has gone up and he is not at that standard anymore."
Schumacher finished 12th in the Turkish Grand Prix last weekend after clashing with Renault driver Vitaly Petrov and told the BBC he no longer felt "big joy" racing.
Seven-time world champion Schumacher has struggled since his comeback after three years on the sidelines in late 2009, failing to get on the podium in 23 starts and coming nowhere close to a 92nd grand prix victory.
"He did not return just to run in the middle order," Briton Herbert, Schumacher's teammate at Benetton in 1995, said in a column in Abu Dhabi's The Nation newspaper. "His dream was to win again and make Mercedes race winners, but it has not turned out that way and I would be surprised if he chose to continue."
Herbert said age - Schumacher is 42 - was not a factor and that drivers like Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso as well as Schumacher's Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg had just raised the bar.
"The simple fact is that he is no longer the best driver on the track," Herbert wrote. "Schumacher has not lost any of his skill - the new generation of young drivers are just better than him. It is a case that the level required to win in F1 has gone up and he is not at that standard anymore."
Schumacher finished 12th in the Turkish Grand Prix last weekend after clashing with Renault driver Vitaly Petrov and told the BBC he no longer felt "big joy" racing.
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