Look, obviously I don't think all of a sudden we don't like Schumacher or respect him on a personal note. Plain and simple, if your'e a Ferari fan you root for your team. He's with the opposition now and that's that. When he finally does retire,he'll be best remembered for his days at Ferrari and wouldn't be surprised to see him back there in some role.
Thank you for all you did for the Team while you were there. but now you're gone, hope you fail to finish every race!. Forza Ferrari! As for: MMmmmm...... Not convinced that had he really not wanted to retire, he couldn't have gone to another team elsewhere, straight away. He wasn't under a threat of death if he tried to carry on racing (unless you know something different?), so all this "he was forced to retire" talk is a bit silly. He may have been contemplating it and was convinced it was the right thing to do, but at the end of the day, it was his choice to retire, Not Ferrari's or LDM's as people seem to think. As I have said before, He's a grown man, not a child being told what to do.
The fact that he's jumping ship shows he was quietly nudged to the door. He's had his break and now wants to jump back in. We'll see if age holds him back?
But he didn't make much fuss at the time, did he?. Like I say, If he really didn't want to retire, he didn't have to.
If things go the way I think they might he will be remembered simply as "One Of The Greatest The Sport Has Ever Seen", people will mention him in the same breath with names like Ascari, Fangio, Clark, Stewart, Senna and people will say "He won X championships with Benneton, Ferrari and Mercedes Benz becoming the winningest driver in Formula 1 history." As I've said before, I've lever liked the guy. But I am very pleased and proud to have been an F1 fan during his time in the sport. I saw him drive, I saw him win, I saw him lose and I saw him cheat. I've seen the best and worst a driver can be from him. He defines an era in Formula 1 that is fast fading away. He is not Ferrari and Ferrari is not him. He is simply The One To Watch.
Regardless if he wanted to retire, he was in effect shown the door with LdM's help. So, he felt it was about time anyway. Now he's deciding to come out of retirement and guess what, it's to a different team altogether run by a guy he truly respects, Brawn.
The fact of the matter is we are dealing with the 2 greatest of all time. MS The greatest F1 driver in F1 history. SF the greatest team in F1 history. I myself will be cheering on both SF and MS in 2010.
He was given the choice to stay with Ferrari but wanted to think it over. Only problem ,they couldn't wait forever and risk missing out on Kimi as he was the best available at the time and they had to get on with plans for 2009.
Phill, There's been numerous discussions about this in the past. I've always thought he retired based on his own decision. But look at the pre and post Monza 2006 race. MS's and Jean Todt's body language paints a whole different picture. MS won that day, but he didn't look that happy, and he was trying his best to avoid LdM. MS always said that he did plan to retire at the end of the season in 2006 when it all started in Bahrain. But somehow, i think along the way, there's been a change of heart, and perhaps he wanted to continue, 1 more year maybe. Perhaps he wanted to wait until end of the season to make his decision, but Luca was having none of this. Kimi was available and he didn't want to ruin that chance. So i'm quite sure he pressured MS to make a fast decision. IMHO, if he had really enjoyed, and really wanted to retire, why would he come back? It's quite clear he thinks he still has some fire in there, something special to offer. What i think, could be a potential mistake by the Scuderia is actually not offering his a drive, and end up losing him to Merc. What if he totally dominates the sport? I guess we'll have to wait and see..
