Is Schumacher's return cobblers?

Now it has to be said that when he was at the top of his game, I didn't much care for Michael Schumacher. Like most people in Britain, I never quite forgave him for running into my mate Damon Hill in Adelaide back in 1994 and his subsequent dominance of the sport during the early noughties made Formula 1 even more boring than the FIA had already made it.

Not only that but he also came across as being one of the most arrogant and self-obsessed drivers to ever darken the Formula 1 world. Admittedly this was largely down to the way the British press portrayed him coupled with the fact that he had that stereotypical ice-cold, humourless German persona.

Nevertheless, one could not deny the man's talent. Right from the moment he first appeared on the scene in 1991 with Jordan, he was a superstar. Despite his debut lasting about 500 yards, he was snapped up by Benetton and easily outpaced his 3 time world champion team mate, Nelson Piquet, for the remainder of the season. He then proceeded to put Brundle and Patrese in the shade the following two seasons.

Within a couple of years he had turned Benetton into a championship winning car. His sheer dominance at the wheel in 1994 and 1995 was mind-blowing. Then he made a very bizarre career choice. He joined Ferrari.

Ferrari at this point were going through one of their Italian mood swings and were pretty awful. His first year at the team was fairly hopeless but he nevertheless managed to somehow claim 3 victories in a car that looked more like a tank and was about as reliable as a Frenchman in a war.

As well as his own leadership, he also managed to entice Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne into the team for the following year and suddenly the car was a championship challenger. He was unlucky to lose the title that year, largely because Villeneuve was so unbelievably lucky himself. Although he once again showed his true colours by deliberately running into the Moose-head at the final race and getting himself kicked out of the championship.

He lost the title fair and square to Hakkinen in 1998 and then broke his legs the following year. After recovering from that, his comeback was pretty spectacular. He won 5 consecutive championships, broke every meaningful record in the book and firmly put himself down in the history books as arguably the greatest driver of all time.

He retired when he was still pretty much on top and that is the way it should be. He had about a gazillion quid in the bank and could live out the rest of his days knowing that the regulations the FIA had introduced to stop him winning all the time meant that his records would probably never been beaten.

Then, after 3 years away where he got so bored he agreed to pretend to be the Stig on Top Gear, he decided to make a comeback. Oh dear.

Now, when we think of famous drivers attempting a comeback we think of people like Nigel Mansell who came back after a year and a half in America eating hamburgers. He initially did a pretty respectable job and won a race but then decided to try and prolong his comeback with McLaren. This fell to pieces because the car was crap and, having spent 2 years in America, he had become too fat to squeeze in the car.

Alan Jones is another classic case. He retired at his peak at the end of 1981 and then decided on a comeback in 1983 which lasted one race. He then tried again at the end of 1985 and spent the entire 1986 season embarrassing himself by trailing his overweight arse round at the back of the field in a rather unflatteringly slow Lola.

So why should Schumacher think he is any different? Let’s face it he’s no spring chicken. At 41, he is far too old to be playing with the kids who are racing in F1 now, surely?

But let’s not forget that there have been some very successful comebacks. The two that spring to mind are Alain Prost and Niki Lauda. Lauda effectively made two. He returned, almost literally, from the grave in 1976 after being burnt to a crisp and went on to win the championship again in 1977. Retiring at the end of 1979 in s strop because the Brabham was such a useless pile of crap, he made his second comeback after a 2 year break with McLaren and went on to win a third championship.

Prost was sacked by Ferrari at the end of 1991 for being an obnoxious and whiny Frenchman and spent a year on the sidelines before using his French connection to worm his way into the Williams Renault in 1993 where he won the championship.

There have been others who have successfully recovered from nasty accidents. Mika Hakkinen came back from his near fatal crash in Adelaide in 1995 and went on to win 2 championships. Massa has recently returned from a similarly nasty crash and doesn’t seem to have lost his edge either.

So what will Schumacher make of his opportunity? Well at the moment he’s making a bit of an arse of himself and the press are having a field day with the apparent downfall of this once great driver. Certainly 3 years away is a long time and age is surely an issue. Coupled with the limits on testing now, it’s going to be that much harder to improve the car sufficiently for him to get anywhere near the front.

However, I can’t shake this feeling that he will do something spectacular later in the season. The speed and the determination are both obviously still there. He is just as quick as he was and is certainly still physically fit enough. I think it’s taking him a while to adjust and the car isn’t great at the moment. I certainly wouldn’t write him off just yet. I don’t think he will be anywhere near the kind of driver he was in his heyday but he is still more than capable of winning races this year given the right opportunity.

Having said that, I don’t believe for one minute he will see out his 3 year contract. Apart from the fact that he really will be far too old by then, I think he will realise this year that he just has far too much to lose by prolonging a return that is never going to be wholly successful. If his comeback lasts more than one season I’ll be very surprised. If he wins another championship I will get out the salt and pepper and eat my hat.