Ralf Schumacher may not race in 2009
Ralf Schumacher is facing the prospect of bowing out of motor racing altogether.
The 33-year-old German, who left Formula 1 at the end of 2007 following a disappointing three seasons with Toyota, also had a lacklustre debut in the German touring car series DTM this year.
Driving for Mercedes’ effort, he failed to win a race and finished the championship just fourteenth.
The German newspaper Bild reports that his contract ran out on 31 December, and that discussions for an extension have so far “brought no result”.
Schumacher, who won six Grands Prix with Williams, said: “Nobody should be worried about me. Apart from race driving I have enough projects to keep me busy.”
Bild said one of Schumacher’s other pursuits is yacht racing, in collaboration with his friend and boat designer Albert Drettmann.
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Read more: Ralf Schumacher biography
There’s a loss to the motor racing world.
If it is written by Bild, it doesn’t mean anything. This is hardly a credible source. It is rather unlikely that Ralf will quit the DTM, he was driving a year-old Mercedes car and did a rather good job in it, considering he’s benn a rookie. Winning races has never been an option.
Christian - Ordinarily I’d agree with you but I haven’t seen anything about Mercedes keeping him on and he was pretty dreadful last year.
To be honest, I don’t think it will be much of a loss to the motor racing world, if he dosen’t compete in any motorsport again.
keith I think u missed this link along with others in this topic http://www.f1way.com/news/2009/January/2/title-loss-would-have-hurt-hamilton—schu
Mad - I chose not to run that one as I thought it wasn’t very interesting - it basically boils down to ‘driver states obvious about scenario that never happened’. If he’d said it the day before the race it might have been interesting, two months later it’s not.
@keith I thoght u just missed it……
Perhaps Ralf should get it into his thick German skull that there can only be ONE Schumacher in “motor sport” or anything with wheels. I think his plan to go sailing is a much better sport for him, considering it’s a lot slower (like he was in F1), and there is a lot more ocean so less likely to crash into anyone.
Hang on a minute, Ralph didn’t stop “racing” years ago??
don’t think anybody cares about him
Ralf has won more races than Fisi, Button, Trulli, Heidfeld, Webber.
True, but he spent much more time in competitive cars than they did.
As said above, he finished 14th (out of 15)… enough said! I’m sure he’s a nice guy with lots of “projects” blah blah, so all the best to him.
Ralf did very well in fast cars. He just didn’t do much if the car wasn’t competitive. I’ve seen alot of drivers exactly the same - and plenty (like Fisi and Trulli) who are the opposite. Lay off the Ralf bashing, can we? Just ’cause he peeved McLaren’s new PR guy when he was editing a certain tabloid (imo) doesn’t mean he wasn’t good in an F1 car. His stats show more talent than 70% of F1 drivers past and present. Just ’cause Toyota were silly enough to pay his wage demands seems to be some reason to hate the guy (wouldn’t you take it if offered?). And so what if he’s a bit sooky and not his brother? At least he didn’t say “limit”, “maximum” and refer to himself as “we”.
Speaking of Michael, didn’t he say that he and Ralf should never race in “cars”, just open-wheelers?
That’s what you get for being much more arrogant than your brother, and much less competitive…
Most opinions on Ralf Schumacher are sadely, not objective - ralf was more then just Michael’s brother. He should be remembered as a six times grand prix winner, as the second most successful german F1 driver and as beeing with his illustrious brother the only two brothers in history of F1 having shared wins and poles alltogether during their time in F1.
People tend to remenber only the media unobjective vision of the sport : Ralf was overhyped, overpaid, and annoying. Just look up his stats and the duration of his F1 carreer and you’ll think otherwise
He also took that rotten Williams to 6th in the Championship with 35 points in 1999, when his teammate Zanardi was completely incapable of scoring (aside from the difficult season he had).
ralf has performed everytime, its media which always discourage him and decrease his confidence.ralf deserves to be in f1.