Michael Schumacher's biggest challenge ever
Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at 9:10AM Michael Schumacher returns to Formula 1 in 2010 after a three year layoff from the sport. Three years out of F1 is a very long time. It is a sport that waits for no-one and changes constantly, continually, relentlessly.
On the face of it, no driver in recent memory would have a better chance to pick up where he left off. At age 41, Schumacher is in better shape today than most of us will ever be in any point of our lives. To be fair, he is one of the few who has been touched by God with his athletic ability, technical acumen, hand-eye coordination, and guile. A healthy dab of narcissism doesn’t hurt either. He works out obsessively, measures what he eats, and is completely motivated by the thrill of competition instead of how it fills his bank account.
He was highly visible as a retired guy during his time off, standing rigidly in the Ferrari pits like a guard dog on 'stay' while watching the up and down performances of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen. In his role as an "advisor" to the Ferrari team, he was a quasi-coach for Massa, helping him with his race-craft as well as mental conditioning and focus.
However, when you get a guy as successful as Michael who retires at the top of his game, all that extra energy has to go somewhere…and for a while he channeled it into competitive motorcycle racing. In a move lauded by some and questioned by others, Schumacher rode a Honda Fireblade in amateur races as well as the German Superbike Championship in 2008. While many admired the ambition of this new endeavour, others thought he was nuts. Former F1 team boss Eddie Jordan was heard wondering aloud if Schumacher had “rocks in his head”. Jordan knows Schumacher well, giving Michael his first chance at F1 in 1991. Regardless, if Schumi didn’t have rocks in his head before Feb 11, 2009 he probably does now for that was the date he took a spectacular flopper off of his Fireblade during a test in Cartagena. Landing cranium-first into the runoff after a bump-induced cartwheel, Schumacher was knocked unconscious and had to be hospitalized. The end result was head and neck injuries that ended his affair with bike racing, as well as his bid to sub for the injured Massa later on that year at Ferrari.
Now it is 2010, his injuries have reportedly healed, and he’s back in Formula 1 teamed up with Ross Brawn at Mercedes F1. Brawn’s success in 2009 running his own team is well documented. Having acquired the carcass of the Honda F1 operation, Brawn gizmo-fitted a Mercedes engine into the car and creatively interpreted the design rules to end up galaxies ahead of the pack. Although the rest of the field caught up mid-season, driver Jenson Button stacked up enough points early on to become the 2009 Formula 1 World Champion. Combined with some stellar late season efforts by teammate Rubens Barrichello, Brawn F1 took the 2009 F1 constructors championship as well.
Schumacher and Brawn were each as responsible as the other for Ferrari’s incredible (and boring) success from 1999-2006. Now they’re together again at a Brawn team stabilized by Mercedes ownership. Schumacher has noted how comfortable he feels already, and how nice it is to speak German in a racing garage…a luxury he hasn’t enjoyed since the Sauber Group C days of 1989-1991.
So on paper it stacks up well for Germany’s darling Schumi. He’s in great shape, fully healed from trying to auger himself into the Spanish countryside. He’s back together with mad-scientist Brawn in last year’s championship team. Go ahead and pull the lever for Michael’s 8th world drivers title, right?
Well, maybe…and maybe not.
While he is the great Michael Schumacher, his 41 years of age cannot be ignored. Only two drivers in the history of Formula 1 have secured World Championships at a more advanced age; 43 year old Nino Farina in 1950 and a 46 year old Juan Manuel Fangio in 1957. While it is always difficult to compare different eras in racing, one could safely say Farina’s Alfa Romeo 158/50 and Fangio’s Maserati 250F were decidedly less demanding to drive than today’s F1 cars with their 4g+ cornering and braking forces.
In today’s modern “ground effects” era, the last person to compete in Formula 1 at age 41 was a tired and grumpy Nigel Mansell in 1995. The last driver to win a race at 41 or older was the indomitable Niki Lauda a full 26 years ago. Again, Schumacher’s talent and physical condition are exemplary, but there are reasons for those large gaps in time. As the human body ages, it begins to lose flexibility, stamina, strength, and resiliency. One’s reactions slow, recovery time from injury increases, and eyesight begins to deteriorate. Good genetics can keep these factors at bay, but inevitably the body succumbs. As NBA TV analyst Mark Jackson recently put it, “Father time is undefeated”.
So where does this put Michael Schumacher for the upcoming season? I imagine there will be race wins and virtuoso performances…as well as a number of unexplained offs and some occasional hammering around mid-pack. As former F1 pilot Johnny Herbert recently pointed out, Schumacher doesn’t have the luxury of a full salvo of off-season testing to dial the car in. It will have to be fast “out of the box” so to speak, and so will Michael.
Will he compete for the championship? Perhaps…although Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and an invigorated Fernando Alonso are clearly the favorites for the crown. That’s another thing Michael will have to endure, the role of the underdog. It will be interesting to see if that makes him better or frustrates him into mistakes. Will Michael battle like the savvy veteran and stake his claim at the top again, or will he be bloodied, bruised, and ultimately ejected from the Formula 1 pride like an aging Lion?
We will see, won't we. At the end of the day, it will be one of the most interesting stories in the history of Formula 1 no matter how it turns out.
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