Michael Schumacher believes Mercedes’ second place in the constructors’ championship shows they can compete for the title next year.
The seven-times champion, who left the team at the end of last year, said the team had made huge progress since his last drive for them.
“It’s a great result,” said Schumacher, “particularly if you consider where we’re coming from last year, I mean we’ve been absolutely nowhere by the end of the year and no one could have been expected to be fighting even at part of the season for the championship. ”
“They had a great start of the year and they even were able to push through the year quite hard until a point that the understood ‘OK, here we are at the end of the championship for us, so it’s better to focus on 2014’.
“And so we did in the past, the infrastructure now is in place since quite a while. Ross Brawn decided to have the right amount of people in the right position and everything now is there to have the base to fight the championship in the future and that’s what I think can happen. Anyway, congratulations for the second position.”
Schumacher was rumoured to have been approached by Lotus to make a two-race return to F1 in place of Kimi Raikkonen at the end of the year. But he said he is not interested in making a second comeback to the sport.
“Formula One is certainly the highlight of motorsport and it’s great to drive the car, absolutely, yes,” he said. “I enjoyed when I’ve been in the Nurburgring, to drive the car.”
“Just a bit of fun but to do it seriously, no. I’m tired of this one and that’s why I decided because Mercedes gave me the option to continue for the future and I didn’t really fancy it.
“I have arrived in my new life and it’s very nice. Even if you go back, the first time I retired I didn’t really miss it because I have so many other pleasureful things to do, it’s a good life.”
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Journeyer (@journeyer)
29th November 2013, 10:01
Of course the great irony of this is that now Mercedes have effectively pushed Ross Brawn out…
AndrewT (@andrewt)
29th November 2013, 10:28
considering that 2014 is the beginning of a new era with a lot of changes, i dont’t think a 2nd in the constructors can guarantee anything. just remember what happened from 2008 to 2009: top teams struggled, midfield teams came forward. of course i don’t expect the same, but Mercedes can easily find themselves somewhere else on the grid than they finished F1 this year…
timi (@timi)
29th November 2013, 10:56
2nd place guarantees a fat wad of cash which may boost a team’s advantage, or help them in getting out of a mess (if their ’14 car turns out to be relatively bad), you never know.
AndrewT (@andrewt)
29th November 2013, 11:54
true, it’s about 20 millions more to spend, considering they finished 5th last year, and 2nd this year. so you’re absolutley right, more money means more possibilities
matt90 (@matt90)
30th November 2013, 2:06
I think that had a lot to do with McLaren and Ferrari concentrating on their 2008 campaigns so much at the end of the season, whereas most other teams could somewhat afford to dial it back and plan for 2009.
timi (@timi)
29th November 2013, 10:59
It’s nice to hear Schumi is enjoying life, so much so he turned down Lotus’ request!!
I agree with most of what Schumi says here. Developing such a fast car and being able to develop it through most of the season while staying near the front, is a massive, and largely understated achievement for this team. It bodes very well for them in the future, that they now seem to have techniques, systems et al in place to get them a good race car. Next season should be interesting. As much as I like Merecedes, I’d rather Williams surprised us with an absolute rocket haha!
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
29th November 2013, 11:17
@timi I think the experiences of Badoer and Kovalainen have shown it would not have been a good idea.
JCost (@jcost)
29th November 2013, 12:29
Indeed.
All I want for 2014 is at least 3 teams fighting for poles and wins with fairly even cars and I want Mercedes to be one of those teams.
Jason (@jason12)
29th November 2013, 11:20
Is Schumacher deliberately confusing us here?
He was let go by Merc, while he still wanted to drive in F1.
Michael Brown (@)
29th November 2013, 13:06
I saw the video, and he said that driving an F1 car is fun, but not the competition. I guess it’s related to the Pirelli seasons he competed in.
gilgen (@gilgen)
29th November 2013, 15:34
Merc ready for title fight? Funny, I heard the same four years ago, and three years ago, and two years ago, and one year ago…………
But not if the reported engine problems are to be believed. Even McLaren are worried.
matt90 (@matt90)
30th November 2013, 2:08
Nobody was suggesting Merc would be challenging for the title this time last year.
BJ (@beejis60)
29th November 2013, 17:23
Does anyone wonder what Schumi would or could have done this year? I, for one, would have loved to have seen him in this year’s relatively competitive car.