Michael And Kimi To Test Ferrari At Catalunya Monday

Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher will return to Formula One action next week when he tests for the Ferrari team.

The German, retired from racing since the end of 2006, will join world champion Kimi Raikkonen at the Circuit de Catalunya on Monday for a three-day test.

The test will be final one before the start of the season in Australia.

Curious to see how their times will compare.

 

Curious indeed! Should be an interesting day. I wonder how Kimi feels about testing with MS or whether or not he has any say in who, if anyone, test alonside him.

Noel.

 

maybe they'll finally bust out the new nose I've been hearing about...

 

Not sure why they're doing this? IMO everyone loses focus. Keep him around but if the guy's done then let him stay back stage.

 

I'm curious to see who is faster and by how much.

 

Michael is a wealth of information and feedback to the engineers,
it would be foolish not to use him, pick his brain on development.
Kimi could care less about Michaels times. At the end of the day,
Kimi's the one contesting for the world championship, not Schumacher.
I doubt seriously Kimi will lose his focus, now if it were all up to Massa,
he looks like the more emotional one that would probably get affected.

 

you guys are funny. you wanna compare the current WDC to a retired one? whatever for? they're just focusing on the new season. they'll probably run diff setups, for diff situations.

 

He's the only one with pre-TC experience. His testing is going to be vital to "lifing" tires now that they're under more stress... hey, he's a TEAM member...

What happened to the Todt firing thread?...<grin>

 

The Todt firing thing became the MGT thing below. New name, less sensitive?

 

Peter, Sindo and Brian above are all very correct.

 

They will make sure that Kimi and Michael will drive completely different setups so you can't compare their times. Anyway, will be great to see Schumi return to the track!

 

We should give both of them and the team more credit. I honestly believe that everyone has now settled down within the team with their roles. I think this is nothing more than a regular testing and evaluation session that the we, the media and the fans, are making a big deal out of nothing. Michael has been out of racing for a year, and he is a year older. He may still be fast but I would think that he is not as fast as he was a year ago. He knows and understands that his role as an expert test driver and not out there to compete for a racing seat.

As for Kimi, I think with the WDC monkey finally off Kimi's back, he is not going to feel as threatened by Michael's presence, in fact, this may be the first time that he is truly comfortable around him. IMO, he is more relaxed this off season and with the right car, he will be WC again this year because he now knows how and what it takes to win the F1 WDC. So while it is fun and I am sure everyone in the world, including myself, will be interested in seeing what kind of times the two of them will put up, there really is very little stock in this as in reality, it is just another testing session for Ferrari and their drivers. I would be more interested in seeing how the other teams does when they finally go head to head against each other in testing.

 

Bingo Sindo!

I really suspect that this is more of a benchmark test, since Michael first tested the new car without TC back in December. I suspect the team is anxious to get Michael's feedback with regards the car's development over the past 3 months......

After all, Michael is the only driver in the Scuderia with experience racing without Traction control. I also suspect that this is the reason that Luca Badoer is still employed.

 

Kimi's knickname is the "Iceman".

 

or James Hunt..

 

So what if MS is faster than Kimi. All this means that Ferrari will have better preped car for race. Kimi should be glad if MS sorts out car for team and if it helps to be on top.

 

Kimi is faster than MS today by .11 seconds.

 

OOoooooooooooooooooooooooh hoo hoo hoo!

 

Michael was a tenth slower than Kimi which is really impressive considering his time away from F1. I really don't place much emphasis on who is faster (pointless to do so) but the fact that they are close in time is a tribute to Michael's talent.