I would seriously consider an interesting and attractive offer to drive in a competitive Formula One team.
Ralf Schumacher

Let’s break this down, Ralf. As of right now, there is one Renault, one Toro Rosso, one Campos, one Sauber and one USF1 drive on the line. Which one of those falls under your definition of “really competitive”.

- Renault probably stands the best chance of being ompeitive, but their second seat is likely to go to someone associated with Gravity Sports Management; the names Ho-Pin Tung and Bertrand Baguette have been thrown about. Vitaly Petrov is another possibility because there has been talk that Gerard Lopez is close with minor sponsors MegaFon (who may want to increase involvement).

- Toro Rosso are no longer receiving the same chassis as Red Bull. They are building their own, and they’re probably going to be fighting at the back. Jaime Alguersuari has apparently been promised the #17 seat, but even if he doesn’t get it, they’l probably take another Red Bull Young Driver – Daniel Ricciardo or Brendon Hartley – before Ralf.

- Adrian Campos says he’s close to getting his second driver and a title sponsor. Vitaly Petrov and Pastor Maldonado (with their Gazprom and PDVSA money respectively) are believed to be the front-runners. Pedro de la Rosa has been decribed as an “ideal” choice, but languishes a distant third due to lack of sponsor dollars. Even if Campos does not take Petrov or Maldonado, Schumacher will have a hard time getting around de la Rosa.

- Sauber probably stand the second-best chance at being competitive, though they are running with a greatly-reduced budget and Peter Sauber is said to be reluctant to resume his role as team boss, so I expect he’ll sell the team for 2011. He has said he wants one experienced driver and one rookie; he’s got his rookie in the form of Kamui Kobayashi, and that experienced driver will probably be Nick Heidfeld or Giancarlo Fisichella. Betrand Baguette is another posibility (despite a lack of experience), as is Vitaly Petrov.

- The first USF1 seat is expected to go to Jose Maria Lopez. The second seat is probably the most open of the six available; no name really sticks to it. It’s known that Windsor and Anderson would like an experienced driver, but the names Pedro de la Rosa and Alexander Wurz come up far more frequently than Ralf Schumacher, even if Windsor is a Ralf fan.

Of course, none of that accounts for competitive-ness. My belief is that Ralf is just making sure his name is known; he’s always lived in Michael’s shadow. And when Schumacher the Elder does something, the Younger has to do something of is own to make sure the world doesn’t forget he exists.

I would seriously consider an interesting and attractive offer to drive in a competitive Formula One team.

That’s the thing, he actually thinks he’s very good. His salary was always ridiculously over what he was worth. He might want to but he won’t be coming back – least of all to a ‘competitive’ car!

Obviously Mrs Schumacher didn’t agree.