30/03/2010
NEWS STORY
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Michael Schumacher's return to F1 was always guaranteed to keep the media busy, the German, certainly in some sections of the press, having previously been blamed not only for much of what was wrong with F1 but with the world in general. In traditional pantomime style he is seen as the villain, the man in black, the baddie, he who should be booed, hissed and ridiculed at every turn.
There were a few murmurs when the German first announced his return to the cockpit, especially as some saw him as taking Jenson Button's seat at Mercedes (nee Brawn), and this continued once testing got underway and he failed to top the timesheets.
Then came Bahrain, and his six place finish - compared to teammate Nico Rosberg's fifth, was heralded as the writing on the wall, a 'fact' borne out by the fact that the 41-year-old had been slower than his countryman in every practice session.
Having finished tenth in Melbourne, his race effectively ending at the first corner after falling victim to the chain reaction set in motion by Button, the media has even more 'evidence' with which to bash the German.
While the Daily Mail lashed out at his salary, for once not choosing to take the line that he is a foreigner taking an Englishman's job, the Sun described the Australian Grand Prix as an "an anonymous afternoon" for the Mercedes driver, predicting that he "may not see out the first season of his three-year deal".
The Times wondered whether the German has a place in the modern era, claiming that Schumacher... "cut a disconsolate figure as he swept out of Albert Park, having discovered that his reputation counts for nothing among the new generation". Indeed, the British organ said; "he became almost a sad postscript... once the greatest exponent of overtaking simply had to accept a lowly tenth place."
Even ESPN wrote of the "ignominy of briefly being overtaken by Lucas di Grassi's Virgin" adding that the German veteran was slower than Nico Rosberg all weekend, whereas the reality was that Schumacher out-paced his teammate in two of the three practice sessions and was only 0.043s slower in qualifying. Indeed, even his fastest race lap was the fourth best of the race.
While the media will continue one of its favourite pastimes, Schumacher will focus on the one person whose criticism he truly listens to and fears, himself.
"There will be more to come," he proclaims on his personal website, clearly frustrated by what happened on Sunday. "I know that might sound awkward," he continues, "but I take a lot of good aspects from the race weekend in Melbourne.
"Of course that does not show at first sight but looking into our weekend more deeply, I find we did improve quite well and have a good reason to be quite satisfied - just not from the pure result obviously. But analyzing qualifying I think both Nico and me could have been ranked 2 to 3 positions better. I had a too conservative set up in the end which was too much concentrated towards the race, plus I had a tear-off strip stuck in my front wing which too cost me some time. And going into the race from those better positions would have meant fighting for the podium.
"All that means that we are not too far away, and I am quite confident there will be more to come. So going to Malaysia we know that clearly we improved our pace since Bahrain which is a good feeling. It was a lot of fun fighting in Melbourne even if it was just for one point, and I will enjoy fighting again in Sepang. We would like to show another good race."
As witnessed by Jenson Button's fine win, experience is really going to count this season, and there are none more experienced than Schumacher. Having wisely passed up the Ferrari drive last year, the German veteran will not have accepted Mercedes offer on a whim, while fully aware that he might not have "a place in the modern era", he will also have been fully aware that by returning he had more to lose than gain.
Not too long ago, sections of the media were claiming that Button would get "murdered" by his teammate this season, whereas, as witnessed on Sunday, the reining champion has a few tricks up his sleeve. It would be equally unwise to dismiss Schumacher, far less to goad him.