A common perception in the formula one paddock this year is that Ferrari, thirteen seconds behind the winning McLaren at Indy, is missing Michael Schumacher.
Triple world champion and former Ferrari racer Niki Lauda observed at the US grand prix: “They will be missing the meticulousness with which he moved Ferrari forwards in the past years.
“I said at the start of the season: it’s not going to hurt them now, but later in the year.”
‘Bild’ newspaper, meanwhile, took the bold step in declaring that F1’s famous Prancing Horse is back “in crisis”.
Another German publication, the specialist magazine Auto-Bild-Motorsport, said Schumacher could be on the verge of returning to the red cockpit as a test driver — and the 38-year-old may even have already driven the current F2007 single seater in “secret tests”.
Italy’s IL Secolo XIX wrote this week: “Some at Ferrari are already dreaming about Schumacher’s return”.
The former seven time world champion, however, might not be interested.
While he attended the recent Spanish, Monaco and Canadian grands prix, he traded in his spot on the Indianapolis pit wall for a game of football in the east Austrian state of Burgenland last weekend — and scored three goals, according to local reports.
