Michael Schumacher cancels F1 return
Michael Schumacher at the wheel of a Ferrari F2007 in Mugello
Michael Schumacher has announced he will not be returning to race at the European Grand Prix at Valencia.
A statement on his website says:
Yesterday evening, I had to inform Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo and Team Principal Stefano Domenicali that unfortunately I’m not able to step in for Felipe. I really tried everything to make that temporary comeback possible, however, much to my regret it didn’t work out. Unfortunately we did not manage to get a grip on the pain in the neck which occurred after the private F1-day in Mugello, even if medically or therapeutically we tried everything possible.
The consequences of the injuries caused by the bike-accident in February, fractures in the area of head and neck, unfortunately have turned out to be still too severe. That is why my neck cannot stand the extreme stresses caused by Formula 1 yet. This are the clear results of the examinations we did on the course of the past two weeks and the final examination yesterday afternoon. As there were no improvements after the day in Mugello, I decided at short notice on Sunday to do that thorough examination already yesterday.
I am disappointed to the core. I am awfully sorry for the guys of Ferrari and for all the fans which crossed fingers for me. I can only repeat that I tried everything that was within my power. All I can do now is to keep my fingers crossed for the whole team for the coming races.
Ferrari has not yet announced who will take his place. Reserve driver Marc Gene is likely to be the favourite.
Schumacher had been expected to conduct more tests in an F2007 to further assess his fitness, having been denied an opportunity to test a 2009 F60.
Update: Luca Badoer wil take Massa’s place at Valencia
Read more: Who will take Massa’s place at Valencia?
More on Michael Schumacher
- Schumacher tests at Mugello (pictures)
- Schumacher and F1’s oldest ever drivers
- Official: Michael Schumacher to return for Ferrari in the European Grand Prix
- Michael Schumacher’s F1 career in pictures
- Ferrari F2007 pictures
- Michael Schumacher’s F1 career in stats
- Michael Schumacher career retrospective
- Michael Schumacher’s last Grand Prix: Brazil 2006
- Debate: Which of Schumacher’s titles was the best?
- Michael Schumacher biography
Dammit!
Sad, but if Schumi won’t be on the pace, it’s better this way. He left on a high note in Brazil, why tarnish that?
That said, I wonder if anyone who panic-bought tickets for Valencia, Spa, Monza, and Singapore will be asking for refunds…
Bring on alonso (if contracts allow [which they probably won't]). i remain hopeful…
bit of a shame really, i was looking forward to that as were many others. now we can all return to earth. let’s get back to business. can’t believe it’s still 2 weeks to go. i feel deprived…
well, that’s the most exciting race in a long time becoming the most boring. Meh.
I say give it to Bourdais
That’d be amusing.
Shame. I was looking forward to that.
The cynic in me call massive publicity stunt, though.
Funny, I was just thinking the same thing.
bugga
@noel – lol
I think it was a big mistake on his part anyway. He was never going to do well – why tarnish your great reputation with a few races
Michael was half a second faster than Massa when he tested the car at the end of ‘07 after more than a year out of the cockpit…
I don’t doubt his pace would’ve been thoroughly competitive. Perhaps he’d have had a bit of a struggle with fitness over a race distance though.
Well they sold a few more tickets for Valencia. Now to sign Alonso to sell the rest of them
Gutted!
I knew it. When it was first announced, I was going to say I bet he doesn’t make it because of his injury. What a lot of fuss about nothing.
I’m certainly no Schumacher fan, but I have to admit I’m disappointed.
Here here.
It’s: “hear hear”
But it’s the thought that counts. And I couldn’t agree more.
Duely noted!
I was much looking forward to his return. Keeps the suspense going on for longer though as to who will be Massa’s replacement.
read on f1-live that luca badoer has been confirmed
I agree, I’m also not really a Schuey fan but I too would like to have seen him return. nevermind!!
I think Ferrari should do a “Have I Got News For You” and have a guest driver for each remaining race!!!
Seconded!
Boris Johnson for Suzuka!
Clarkson for Spa
The “star in our ridiculously priced car”?
Ending up with 3rd in the WCC will be a little more difficult now. Hope they get Anthony Davidson instead of either of the Ferrari test drivers.
Aaarg!!
I say good on him for not risking his health more than he has to. It’s one thing if he’d have not been carrying an injury, but given he has got an injury and that it’s to his neck I fully support him playing it safe.
Rather pleased to be honest… Ferrari can now use a “proper” stand in driver and let the focus be on the leaders.
Let’s hope this means that the FIA is more likely to allow Renault to race next week… Fans might burn down the Valencia harbor if they don’t!
who cares tickets have already been sold
This is a real bummer. I was really looking forward to seeing him compete with Vettel and Hamilton in their prime. It wouldn’t have changed anything about his legacy. It would more or less be a fun outing for himself and fans.
Oh well it’s a shame but if he is not fully fit it is best he does not race.
From Jon Noble’s twitter:
Really too bad, I was hugely looking forward to MSC back in an F1 car. At least now we can all bet on whether Badoer will beat Kimi or write off the car.
Beat Kimi? I don’t think so. It will be sufficient if he finishes in points
It seems right that after so many years of testing, Badoer should finally get the chance to score his first ever world championship point(s). Obviously people are disappointed about Schumacher but I’m quite looking forward to seeing what Badoer can do in a good car!
Same here
I have to say i was thinking what Noel was thinking… Ferrari have been getting some great (and free) publicity out of all this.
Hopefully Marc Gene gets a chance to prove his worth, it’s only fair.
Ferrari get free publicity all the time. with or without Shumacher…
They’ve gotten Luca Badoer to fill in, which must be a second disappointment for Marc Gene, he could have had his first race in a Ferrari in front of a home crowd…
What this does show is that F1 is not 100% determined by money-making schemes. If Ecclestone had had any say in it, Gene would have driven at Valencia to generate ticket sales.
yes Ferrari need to build their brand. No one has heard of them before
And there I was, looking forward to Valencia.
This is gonna ruin my week… ergh
Back when it was announced he had an accident while racing on a bike, there were rumours that it was actually much more serious than the Schumacher camp lets on.
That was good while it lasted – at least it made the summer break go a bit quicker.
Does Badoer get a super licence? The last time he raced, Schumacher hadn’t won a title for Ferrari…how many races has he done since?
I hear that Jos Verstappen has been seen at the Ferrari factory (for a seat fitting?) Verstappen beat Schumacher a lot of times on the kart track. That’s why Schumi mentioned him.
Don’t know if Iam entirely happy with this, but it should be better then Luca…
Sad,
But this episode proves he retired too early, he obviously still has the hunger.
Should have stuck to 4 wheels.
bad news, even if i wasn’t a Shuey fan i was dreaming of this gp as most of you guys.. Let’s hope after Badoer Ferrari try some another driver, it’s a right prime for Badoer’s fidelity but without “the big coming back” F1 now need something more in term of show… what about Niki?
*Slaps forehead* Luca Badoer! Good grief.
The announcement mentions that Schumacher had fractures in the neck and head area, which is more serious than I realized. He must feel like a right dolt.
Montezemolo: “Please Michael, we’re desperate, Massa’s got a skull fracture…”
Schumacher: “Err, sorry guys, I’ve kind of, erm, got a neck fracture.”
M: “What?! How?! All you do is watch and advertise Bacardi! Were you hit by a flying cheque?!”
S: “Well… I sort of thought, if driving on four wheels is so easy, how hard it can be on only two? That’s half the number of wheels to think about right? So twice as easy! Except it turned out to be a bit harder than I thought…”
M: “Right, I see. So basically, you’re a chump.”
Shh! The first rule of … is that you don’t talk about it!
good monologue… LOL
Ummm, monologue? Between two (imaginary) people. Right.
Also known as a dialogue.
I’m rather cynical about this.
I think it’s made Ferrari look pretty stupid. First they did not have the confidence in either of their nominated reserve drivers, then it seems they did not do adequate medical testing on Michael before announcing that he had the drive.
Whoever drives the Ferrari now will need a massive confidence boost if he is to compete adequately. After all, they will be third choice driver now, won’t they?
poor gene & luca, they haven’t raced for years. can ferrari borrow rubens for a few races?? i’m sure ross brawn will not mind to loan him for a few races
A bitter-sweet news for me
Well that’s nice for you.
The same here…
But in hindsight it might prove to be a correct decision. he had everything to lose. Anyone maybe with the exception of senna would have taken the same decision as schumi.
coulthard is the man for the job imo
could you not wait 5min and put you collage of thoughts into a more succintic post?
Oh come on, lay off. I’m all for open debate, but now you’re just sniping. One of the best things about this site, other than the fantastic reporting, is the mature nature of the majority of commenting. Maybe take a few deep breaths before you start trolling around here.
hear hear
I’m going to hear hear, but with HG on this one.
Interesting that Montezemolo picked Badoer “after he has put in so many years of hard work as a test driver”. He was picked over Gene as a reward for long service.
This suggests that Ferrari have so little faith in Gene and Badoer that they didn’t even bother selecting between them on racing ability.
But can you imagine if they beat Kimi…
I sincerely hope badoer beats that slaker kimi.
well Badoer hasnt lost much of his racing ability, remember guys, he races other categories when not testing for Ferrari. DId anyone see him on the LeMans Podium by any chance, he was on the top step, in a Diesel (i know i know diesels are not what they used to be)
That was Marc Gene in the Peugeot 908… not Badoer (who has had the most GPs without a single point)
Sorry on that one, made a mistake, it was Gene, i mixed them up…gonna go stand in the corner reciting Marc Gene is the Ferrari test driver that Won LeMans in 2009.
Well, if their decision was going to be based on racing ability, there’d be no point having them both as reserve drivers would there? Cause there’d always be one who would be favoured over the other, making the other redundant…
Has Badoer tested the F60 at any stage during the year??
He didn’t do any circuit work pre-season. He may have done some straight-line tests in the car. His last circuit test was at Portimao in December in the 2008 car.
oh Crap, history has to be rewritten, again,,,, strange how they didn’t make a big deal out of his injuries having been as severe as they are….
despite the euphoria that surrounded Micheal’s comeback, I bet Luca is livid, and hopefully he will put a good show on.
But hey, remember, for a three week lull, F1 hasn’t been as exciting as it was for a while now.
Just out of interest, are there any pictures or videos of Schumacher at Mugello without the helmet, or that definitively confirm that it IS him driving the car?
sorry, posted in the wrong place…
doesn’t make any difference now, even if it was a chimp testing
Maybe this is all a ruse…maybe the Stig will show up in Valencia!!!
What I mean to suggest is that Schumacher wasn’t the one testing and Ferrari knew he wouldn’t be able to race from the beginning.
is this **almost** the longest gap between consecutive races? (badoer last raced in 1999?)
the longest I can recall is jan lammers who appeared in 1979 or 1980 in an ATS and reemerged in a march in 1992.
Autosport have a ‘10 Badoer Facts’ article, including the one you mention. It is the 2nd losgest gap between races, after Jan Lammers.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/77621
Interesting facts!
It may be the longest gap in terms of number of races though.
Interesting fact:
Statistically, Ferrari have replaced the best driver in F1 history (1,369 points in 250 grands prix) with the worst driver in F1 history (0 points in 56 grands prix).
LOL!
That one hurts (if i was at Ferrari)that is
Ricardo Rosset is the worst ever F1 racer.
Hmm I think Yuji Ide was worse. At least Rosset didn’t have his superlicence revoked…
And anyway, this is based on statistics – I imagine Rosset didn’t drive in as many GPs as Badoer.
F-word
C’est la vie.
Damn
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
absolutely gutted. what a s&%^ start to my day. When i found out he was going to drive…pure elation…now pure devastation. *cry*
As an anti-Schumacher who has grown to admire his ability, I can only be a bit gutted at this news… However, to me, Luca Badoer is the best choice Ferrari could make. Much has been made of Schumacher’s loyalty to Ferrari, but Badoer has been in the team for a very long time as well.
Also, remember that Ferrari chose Salo over him when Schumacher crashed in 1999, and in that same year, in the European Grand Prix, who was not sad seeing Luca cry after his Minardi blew it with just a few laps to go while in 4th place? He finally has a chance of breaking his duck (he’s the driver with the most races without a single point to his name).
Luca Badoer at the 1999 European GP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDTMQR4z2QE
ITS A SCAM!!!!! HE WILL WEAR A MASK ON THE RACE THEN BEFORE HE JUMPS IN THE CAR HE WILL RIP HIS MASK OFF AND GO ” HEY ALLLLLLLL “
no, no, he’ll take the mask off after the race (of course wearing an alternative helmet for the weekend)
Yeah, it’ll be one of those foam facemaker types, like in the first Mission:Impossible move
This is the biggest anticlimax I have ever experienced in my whole life! Gutted!
Hopefully Kimi gets swine flu next year!(only joking)
lol
Devastated. Love him or hate him you can’t deny it would have been one hell of a show.
Great shame – I was looking forward to seeing how Schumacher did in the new harder-to-drive F1 cars.
And also how far he could put Kimi’s nose out of joint.
Newer yes… but harder to drive?… I’m sure the 1991 Jordan was a peice of cake…
This is wonderful news for F1 Reject Fans!!
I can imagine there being some sort of massive celebration on that website if Badoer grabs a basketful of points after what is essentially 16 years!
iam really dissapointed……. iam waiting for massa s return
Another classic Eddie Jordan quote from an interview on BBC News:
“Massa doesn’t want a young test driver trying to usurp him and take his seat away… my guess is that Massa will be back within 4-6 weeks.”
Luca Badoer, young test driver? Massa back in 4 weeks? Why do the BBC keep treating this guy as though he was some kind of expert on something?
This is the same Eddie Jordan who reported exclusively that he knew from his “sources” that Massa was mildly concussed after a bang on the chin. Massa was undergoing emergency surgery on a life-threatening skull fracture at the time.
but he did predict alonso would be on pole in hungary
lol, Eddie Jordan either gets things spookily correct (Alonso on pole in Hungary) or purely ends up looking like a fool (saying that a KERS car will never win, then Lewis proved him wrong
)
That is the way with predictions, they’re usually either right or wrong…
The same man who not long ago was saying that the younger dirvers had better watch out as Schumacher would be out to prove a point and is now saying that he doesn’t believe Schumacher still has the racing instinct you’d need…
I liked EJ when he was a team boss (and not just because we share a surname) but I really haven’t warmed to him as a pundit. Bring back the bulldog!!
Those are great assesments on EJ(Adrian, Jonathan)…easily some of my favorite comments on here in the past year and a half
Gutted that Schumacher isn’t returning. Would love to have seen him race Button and Hamilton.
News clip of Schumacher’s non-return here
People are so bloody cynical… Honestly I think that he was hoping his neck strength would improve with a couple of days in the F1-2007 car, but when the medics checked him over it didn’t, and the strain was too much. So with regret he couldn’t drive. Nothing more sinister than that. As for the publicity surrounding it – he was probably as excited as a little kid when he decided to try, and was not focussing on the possible negatives. That’s normal human behaviour when one gets caught up in the excitement of something.
Personally I’m disappointed. I was never a huge fan but I didn’t hate him either. I would have enjoyed seeing him race against the current crop.
I agree. I was never a real fan but it would have been interesting to see him return. I was just hoping he wasnt going to ram Button/Vettel/Webber and ruin their championship chances… not that he has done that before of course!
Not sure what Badoer will do…