World champion Fernando Alonso has sided with 2007 title rival Kimi Raikkonen in expressing muted enthusiasm about the return to the formula one paddock this weekend of F1’s seven time world champion Michael Schumacher.
The 38-year-old German is in Spain attending his first race since retiring as a driver last year, but whispers from the Ferrari camp already suggest that his successor, Raikkonen, is far from keen on the prospect of seeing his former nemesis in the Barcelona motor home.
And McLaren’s Alonso told the Spanish newspaper El Pais: “He was in F1 for fifteen years but personally I do not miss him.
“Ok, fighting against him was not unpleasant, but now we have a big battle with Massa, Raikkonen and Hamilton.
“It seemed like, with Michael, we had come to a point where it was all a bit monotonous.”
Disagreeing with Alonso and Finland’s Raikkonen, however, is Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, who said this week that he was “very happy” about Schumacher’s confirmed visit to the Circuit de Catalunya.
“Thanks to him I improved as a driver and I’ll do my best to demonstrate it to him (in Spain),” the Brazilian told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
