As the paddock goes into admiration overdrive, Bernie Ecclestone has issued some gentle criticism at Michael Schumacher ahead of the retiring German’s last race.
Although praising the 37-year-old’s sixteen seasons of record-setting achievements in a contribution for ‘Welt’ newspaper, the F1 supremo disapproved of Schumacher’s tendency to only go head-to-head with a lower calibre of team-mate.
“I wanted to see him at Ferrari with Kimi Raikkonen next season,” Ecclestone, 75, said.
“With his ability and his fitness he would have been capable of doing that for at least one year.”
Ecclestone also said that Schumacher was often not as ‘accessible’ to the media as some other racers, such as his insistence of doing only a single interview – for German television – before every grand prix.
Schumacher also ‘lacked opponents’, Bernie charged. “If Villeneuve had stayed in a good car,” the Englishman continued, “or Mika (Hakkinen) had kept on going, who knows if he would have had dominated like he did.”
GMMF1
DailyF1News.com
