Michael Schumacher comes home to F1

Fit, focused and desperate to race � The German F1 driver is preparing to fight for an eighth title with Mercedes GP after three years' absence from the sport

The 41-year-old German formula one driver Michael Schumacher and his teammate Nico Rosberg at the presentation of the new Mercedes GP team in Stuttgart.

Photograph: Reuters

His back as straight as a guardsman's, his chin � that caricaturist's delight � jutting out from beneath the cap bearing the logo of his personal sponsor, with a purposeful gleam in his eye and super-confidence radiating from every pore, Michael Schumacher strode back on to the world stage today. So begins a comeback to match that of Lance Armstrong, another seven-times champion, and � some time in the future � of Tiger Woods, another contemporary exponent of crushing dominance.
Only Italians could dispute the suggestion that, almost 20 years after he made his Formula One debut, Schumacher's reappearance as a member of the new Mercedes-Benz team means that he has finally found his way home. After a single weekend with Jordan, a few years with Benetton and a sporting lifetime with Ferrari, at last he finds himself in a grand prix team where at least some of the workers speak his native tongue.
"Quite a lot of my history and quite a lot of my heart is red," he said, making a diplomatic reference to his 11 seasons with Ferrari. "You can't forget or deny all the good moments we had together. Now we will compete against each other, but that doesn't mean we have to forget the past."
With Ross Brawn, who supervised all his seven championships with Benetton and Ferrari, he has always spoken the same language. When Brawn discovered that Jenson Button, his new champion, had made what amounted to a state visit to the McLaren factory in the middle of negotiations last November, his first instinct was to phone his old colleague and suggest that it was time for all the light-hearted discussions they had shared during Schumacher's three-year retirement to bear fruit.
"Almost every year we have had contact," Schumacher said. "Sometimes it was serious, sometimes it was a joke. When he went to Honda he suggested there was an option, but I wasn't ready at the time."
Both men confirmed that there had been a conversation at the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi, before problems emerged over the renewal of Button's contract with the team. "He touched on it," Schumacher said. "Then he called me and it was clear what his question was going to be."
Very quickly, too, Schumacher's answer became clear, although he referred the decision to his wife, Corinna, before confirming the news that he was willing, at 41, to make his return to the cockpit of a grand prix car and to compete against rivals � men such as the 25-year-old Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, 22 � young enough to be his sons.
"Naturally I had a discussion with Corinna," he said. "She's a very down-to-earth person, as we both are. She ­mentioned the pros and cons, and in the end she left the decision to me. It helped me to make up my mind." He would not specify the precise contents of Corinna's list of "cons".
The comparative youth of his new rivals is clearly not something over which he is fretting. "Whether they're young or not doesn't matter," he said. "You just look at who's in the other car and try to work out how you can be better than him."
Not surprisingly, those brave souls attempting to get him to acknowledge or atone for his old sins � barging into Damon Hill in Adelaide in 1994, pushing Jacques Villeneuve off the track at Jerez in 1997 and parking his car in his middle of the track to obstruct Fernando Alonso's quick lap during qualifying at Monaco in 2006 � by saying that he is now prepared to "win in the right way" are clearly wasting their time.
"I'm sure that 91 victories and seven titles you win only in a bad way and you need to prove something," he responded in a tone on the tart side of sarcastic. "Let's be sensible and think about the reality and look forward to what we might all face and enjoy together."
After much gym work and a session in a GP2 car at the Circuit de Catalunya, he is convinced that his physical fitness is up to the demands of a full season of the G-forces imposed by the high cornering speeds of the current generation of Formula One cars. Neck problems caused by a motorbike crash prevented him from deputising for the injured Felipe Massa last summer, but have now been satisfactorily resolved.
"What normally happens with drivers is that they lose the physical capacity to compete and they also lose the determination that you need to compete at every race, every minute, every lap of the circuit," said Brawn. "Michael's showing that he's achieving the same physical parameters as we saw many years ago. He's an exceptional athlete, don't forget that, and his break has refreshed him. And his work ethic has always been tremendous. He's already spent many days at the ­factory, talking to the engineers."
Schumacher stressed his impatience to get behind the wheel of a Formula One car, starting with next week's test sessions in Valencia. "I'm hot," he said. "It's all taking too long. The discussions started in November and we have to wait until February before I drive. I was used to working through the winter and testing in January."
His enthusiasm, he stressed, remains undimmed. "The main reason I'm doing this is that I'm thrilled about it. I've raced karts and bikes while I've been away from Formula One, and that's been great, but I feel very excited about competing again at the highest level of motor sport. I've always been focused and motivated and determined, and that's how it is now. No more and no less."
A slightly more cautionary note came from Brawn. "Until he starts competing, none of us know what his level will be," the team principal said. "But in the latter part of 2006, just before he retired, he had some of his strongest races. We've got an absolute belief in him. Maybe it will take one or two races, but I personally expect him to perform at a very high level straight away."
And on the question of whether Schumacher or Nico Rosberg will be given equal status, Brawn was blunt. "The No1 driver is the fastest one, whoever is winning races. We'll give maximum support to both drivers. Of course if one of them turns out to have a better chance of the championship, there may be different priorities. Last season we gave Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello equal support, and that will be the case this year. I've had a long-standing relationship with Michael, and we can't ignore that, but there will be complete parity of equipment and support. It's a non-issue." You can bet, looking at the glint in Michael Schumacher's eye, that it's a non-issue for him, too.



Richard Williams

Schumacher will be fighting rivals and the sands of time

Lewis Hamilton, it is safe to assume, will be having a very happy Christmas this year.
When he started his Formula 1 career in 2007, the man who became F1's youngest world champion said his one regret was that he never got to race against Michael Schumacher. Now, following the German legend's decision to come out of retirement and race for Mercedes in 2010, Hamilton can fulfil his ambition.
For those of us watching from the sidelines, Schumacher's return is an equally mouth-watering prospect.
At 41, Schumacher will not only renew his battles with Fernando Alonso - the man who beat him in a straight fight for the world title in his final season in F1 in 2006 - but start new ones with Hamilton, Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and the new world champion Jenson Button, whose cars rarely afforded him the chance to take on Schumacher before.

Schumacher's ability to mix it at the front seems to me a given.
Even if he is not quite as quick as he was, as his former team-mate Eddie Irvine suspects, Schumacher will be more than good enough to win races assuming Mercedes provide him with a competitive car - a Michael Schumacher at 90% of his best is still better than the vast majority of the F1 grid.
"I still feel absolutely on the edge," Schumacher said on Wednesday. "This year, when I got back in a go-kart, I was straight away on the pace. I have to prove it, of course, but all the people (I will be working with) have no doubt about my ability."
Ross Brawn, the man who will be masterminding Schumacher's return just as he did all seven of his world titles, is also in no doubt that his new driver will be able to compete at the highest level.
"I asked Michael exactly that," the Mercedes team boss said. "He is the best judge of what he can do. He told me he can do it and I have absolute trust in him, so I'm very confident. He'll do the job."
Whatever happens in 2010, this latest venture is unlikely to harm Schumacher's reputation. Nothing can erase the memory of seven world titles and 91 victories, of a driver to compare with the very greatest names in F1 history.

Schumacher will no more diminish his legacy than did Lance Armstrong when he came back to the Tour de France four years after the last of his seven titles, and, at the age of 38, finished third in arguably the world's toughest endurance event.
If anything, Armstrong's achievement enhanced his standing, and such is the work ethic that Schumacher applied to his career - one of several characteristics he shares with the American cyclist - that the same will surely to apply to him.
But that is not the same as saying that, at 41, he can be the force he was at, say, the beginning of this decade.
Racing drivers tend to slow down as they get older. The reason for that is not that they lose their ability, but because their desire and commitment diminishes.
The willingness to put everything on the line in pursuit of that last scintilla of speed reduces as a man's mind opens to other aspects of life and an awareness of his own mortality grows.
For all Schumacher's talk of his motivation returning after a three-year break from the rigours of F1, of his being thrilled to race finally for Mercedes, not even he will be able to prevent this natural law having some effect.
There are a handful of moments, any one of which could be seen as illustrative of a time when the mantle of greatest driver in the world began to pass from one generation to the next.
Alonso beating Schumacher in a tactical battle in Bahrain at the start of 2006, and the desperation with which Schumacher deliberately crashed his car at Monaco to prevent the Spaniard snatching pole position in the dying moments of qualifying are two that stick in the mind.
But the one that perhaps stands out most of all was during the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix, when Alonso passed Schumacher around the outside at Suzuka's 130R, one of the most demanding corners in F1.
As he swept around the outside of the Ferrari, Alonso's speed at the apex of the corner was 208mph. Knowing that any contact between the two cars would have resulted in an accident that at least one of them may well not have escaped unhurt, the bravery required to pull that off against a man who had built his reputation on bullying and intimidation was immense - the more so given that, two years before, Schumacher had edged Alonso on to the grass at Silverstone at more than 180mph.
But it was not so much the move itself that was telling - once Alonso was alongside and going faster, Schumacher had no choice but to give way - as the mindset that allowed him to think about trying it.
Asked about it a few weeks later, Alonso told the veteran F1 journalist Nigel Roebuck: "At times like that, I always remember that Michael has two kids."
So few words, so much said. In the minds of Schumacher and his rivals, those assessments of what is worth risking and what is not will have grown larger, not smaller, in the three years since his retirement.
Be that as it may, we are talking about moments in extremis here, incidents that happen along only occasionally.
It was in these moments that Schumacher's notorious willingness to dabble in the darker aspects of sporting morality in his quest for success reared its ugly head. It is this side of him that means some of Schumacher's rivals will be a little ambivalent about his reappearance on the grand prix scene. Their tolerance of the dubious ethics that went hand-in-hand with the German's towering ability had been stretched to breaking point by 2006. And most of them were glad to see the back of him.
One suspects, too, that many of them may not be that keen on having him back for another reason - because he is so good.
As good as ever, or not quite as good as that, probably still amounts to a man capable of winning the championship. And that leads one to believe that his chances of success depend on his car.
There are question marks to varying degrees over all the potential title contenders next year.
Can Ferrari, where Alonso now occupies Schumacher's former seat, recapture the form that abandoned them in 2009? Can McLaren make a car that performs on fast circuits as well as it does on slow? Will Red Bull, using a Renault engine, be compromised by the uncertainty surrounding the French manufacturer's involvement in F1 following the decision to sell 75% of the team to a private equity company?
There are uncertainties over Mercedes, too, particularly after the team's slide from competitiveness in the second half of 2009 in its former guise as Brawn. But with them there are arguably less than over any of the other teams.
Given that his new team won the drivers' and constructors' championships in 2009 with a car that was compromised by former owner Honda's withdrawal from F1 last winter, the new Mercedes car will almost certainly be pretty handy.
On that basis, it could even be argued that Schumacher - who will surely have the upper hand over team-mate Nico Rosberg - will start the season as title favourite, at least until the pace of the teams' new cars becomes apparent.
The fact that it is possible to say that about a man who turns 41 on 3 January proves just what a remarkable sportsman Michael Schumacher is, and underlines what makes this such a compelling twist in the unfailingly dramatic narrative of Formula 1.

By : Andrew Benson (BBC F1 Blog)

Who is Will Stevens ?

The Story So Far

Having established himself at a World Championship level in karate as a black belt junior, Will turned his sporting attentions to kart racing in 2002. His introduction to karting came through a family friend and he immediately knew his long term ambitions would be in motor sport.
Will�s achievements throughout his karting career are virtually unparalleled. In taking 10 major National and International titles by the time he was 16 and having established himself as one of the leading karters in the World he made the transition to motor racing at the end of the 2008 season.
It was Will�s reputation in karts that led to the contract to join Honda Formula 1 Racing Team�s Driver Development Programme. This was signed in April 2008 and comprised a long term agreement to support Will through his racing career to his ultimate goal, F1. Honda�s subsequent decision to withdraw from F1 came as a complete surprise to everyone involved but the Brawn GP Team, which successfully emerged to take over the Honda F1 operation, are also continuing Will�s contract under their own driver programme (see the previous post on this here : http://fastfivecars.blogspot.com/2009/06/brawn-gp-continue-to-support-will.html).

The transition from karts to cars in not an easy one and the winter of 2008/9 was spent testing with his new team, Fortec Motorsport in the Formula Renault UK category, the top junior class in the UK and Europe. In addition, he gained experienced competing in the UK and Portugese Winter Series and the Toyota racing Series in New Zealand, taking 6 podiums in his first 17 races.
His objective for the 2009 Season is the Formula Renault UK Championship, the top junior category in the UK. The series is a notoriously difficult Championship to win, especially for a rookie in his first year, but one where many of the current F1 drivers learned their craft.

Now 17 years old, Will�s racing career is the key part of his life. His commitments to racing, testing and training mean that time is a valuable commodity. In addition, frequent visits to the Brawn GP headquarters and his Fortec racing team�s base mean that he spends a lot of time away from home. He commented, �I�ve always spent a lot of time away from home throughout my karting career and that has continued now that I�ve started in cars. I actually enjoy the travel and spending time with my team, most of my close friends come from racing, so I�m very lucky to be able spend a lot of my time doing what I love�.

When Will is not away, he spends his time training or playing golf. On his fitness regime he said, �I really enjoy my training sessions now, Martin and Dan at Pro-Performance have helped me enormously with my fitness and its also very enjoyable. I try to get to the gym most week days so my current fitness level is good, I aim to be fit enough for at least the next level of my career at any time, its critically important�.
Will only started playing golf seriously in 2008, �It�s a great way to relax�, he commented, adding �a lot of my friends are good golfers so my natural competitiveness means that I�m working hard on my game to catch them up!�
Will likes to spend his free time with his family, listening to music, on his computer, with the family dogs, Harvey, Buddy and Hugo or out in his road car. In between all of that he likes to make the most of his social life!

BRAWN GP CONTINUE TO SUPPORT WILL STEVENS

Following up on an article we published last year about Will stevens,
http://fastfivecars.blogspot.com/2008/04/honda-racing-f1-team-signs-will-stevens.html
The Brawn GP team has confirmed that they will continue to support Will Stevens on a long-term driver development programme.

The association continues Will�s previous relationship with the Honda Racing F1 Team and will provide the platform for him to develop the level of performance that is required to potentially become part of Brawn GP�s Formula One programme in the future. 17 year old Will is widely regarded as one of Britain�s top rising young motorsport stars.
Following a prodigious karting career, he is now competing in the Formula Renault UK Championship with Fortec Motorsport in his rookie year in single seater car racing.

Nick Fry, Chief Executive Officer of Brawn GP, commented, �We are very pleased to be continuing our support of Will�s motorsport career and extending the relationship that he has had with the team since 2008. We look forward to working with Will and will be keeping a close eye on his developing motorsport career.�Commenting on today�s announcement, Will Stevens said, �I am extremely proud to be part of the Brawn GP team. What the team has achieved so far this season is incredible and the future looks very exciting. To have the opportunity to be a part of the team is amazing. I would like to thank Ross, Nick and Ron Meadows for their continued support and commitment to my future and I intend to ensure that their belief in me is rewarded�.

Then And Now.....

Read will Stevens Achievements here :http://fastfivecars.blogspot.com/2009/06/who-is-will-stevens.html

BRAWN GP PARTNER WITH TERMINATOR SALVATION AT SPANISH GRAND PRIX


In advance of the worldwide release of the highly anticipated motion picture Terminator Salvation, Brawn GP will join Sony Pictures Releasing International to feature imagery from the film on the team�s Formula One cars over the Spanish Grand Prix weekend. Terminator Salvation will be released in the US on 21 May and globally from 27 May.

The Brawn-Mercedes cars of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello will carry the distinctive Terminator Salvation imagery on the rear wing throughout the Spanish Grand Prix weekend at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. The unique one-race sponsorship builds anticipation for the red-carpet European premiere of the film on 28 May in Paris, France.

The partnership reunites Sony Pictures Releasing International and Formula One following Arnold Schwarzenegger�s famous appearance at the 2003 British Grand Prix to promote T3 Rise of the Machines.

Nick Fry, Chief Executive Officer of Brawn GP, said: �We are thrilled to be supporting Sony Pictures Releasing International with the launch of Terminator Salvation at this weekend�s Spanish Grand Prix. Our promotional partnership will see our race cars and our garage branded with the famous Terminator imagery as we help launch one of Hollywood�s biggest movies of the year to over 580 million Formula One viewers in over 90 countries. The Terminator brand promises exciting action and high drama as machines and human ingenuity battle for supremacy. It�s a perfect match for Brawn GP and Formula One.�

McG, Director of Terminator Salvation, added: �The Terminator franchise has a long standing relationship with Formula One and we are thrilled to be partnering with the Brawn GP team. Formula One represents the best of mechanical engineering and is a true trial of human spirit, themes that perfectly parallel Terminator Salvation.�

Sal Ladestro, Executive Vice President of Sony Pictures Releasing International, said: �Formula One is one of the most popular sports in the world and there are no bigger stars right now than the Brawn GP team. With all eyes on Spain this weekend, we can think of no better partner to build anticipation for the international launch of Terminator Salvation than Brawn GP and the global sport of Formula One.�

Ross Brawn on Honda's Revival

The Formula 1 team formerly known as Honda Racing has been saved after the Japanese manufacturer agreed to pass ownership of the operation to Ross Brawn, who becomes team principal of the new Brawn GP outfit.
Brawn served as Ferrari�s technical director for a decade before moving to Honda at the start of last season.
Brawn GP agreed to a deal with Mercedes for a supply of engines in the 2009 season, which gets under way in Australia on March 29.
The deal also secures the future of British driver Jenson Button and veteran Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, who saw off the challenge of compatriot Bruno Senna for the team�s second seat.

Chief executive Nick Fry admitted at a Formula One Teams Association (Fota) press conference that his team would not have survived had it not been for the association�s help.
�There has been an enormous amount of activity behind the scenes; everyone on the stage here has helped us preserve our team.


�I think myself and Ross and our 700 employees all thank them for that. So the answer is yes (the team would have died without Fota),� he said on Thursday.
The future of the Brackley-based outfit had been uncertain since early December, when Honda confirmed they were ending their involvement due to the global economic downturn.
The earlier press conference in Geneva itself was a landmark occasion. A new points-scoring system for this year, a commitment to cut costs by half and the enhancement of the sport�s presentation on television and in the media were the key themes.

But perhaps of even more significance was the palpably flourishing existence of Fota itself. After the love-in on the banks of Lake Geneva, attended by bigwigs from every Formula 1 outfit, the deeply acrimonious McLaren-Ferrari �spygate� affair of 2007 seems like it was a long time ago.

�This is an unprecedented moment in F1 history,� said Ferrari president and Fota chairman, Luca di Montezemolo. �Above all else, for the first time the teams are unified and steadfast � with a clear, collective vision.�

That vision was made manifest when Fota sounded a warning to Bernie Ecclestone, the sport�s commercial rights holder, saying they may consider �alternative� competitions after 2012 if he did not agree to share more revenue.
But Ecclestone was unimpressed. �It�s the same every five years,� he said. �Their revenue isn�t something I want to discuss. It�s up to us � we run the business.�
A number of proposals were put forward at the conference, which Fota want ratified at the FIA�s world council meeting on March 17.
Foremost among them is a new points scoring system for this season, which would change the current scoring system from 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 to 12-9-7-5-4-3-2-1.