Michael Schumacher turned down an offer to become a regular test driver for Ferrari in 2007 and beyond.
That was the revelation of the Italian team’s chiefs Luca di Montezemolo and Jean Todt at Monza at the weekend, according to the sports newspaper ‘La Gazzetta dello Sport’.
“Yes, I do not think that it is what Michael wants to do,” Montezemolo, the Ferrari president, said.
“But if he should turn up at Fiorano tomorrow and want to do a dozen laps, we will of course reply to him ‘why not?’.”
Team principal Todt added: “If Michael wants to test the car he is free to do it, but to this date he has not said that he wants to.”
Todt insisted that one of Schumacher’s responsibilities as a ‘super-assistant’ in the future will be his involvement in driver decisions, ‘even though he will not be at the races’.
Montezemolo also hailed Schumacher for never hitting out at Ferrari, ‘even when at Suzuka we left him with a smoking motor’.
GMMF1
DailyF1News.com
