New year, new hope for Schumacher
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-03-03 06:50

Eighth title

Ferrari boss Jean Todt has said Schumacher, who has an open invitation to stay on with the most successful team in Formula One history, has no pressure on him to decide.

"Michael is motivated...like all of us, he was very displeased about the 2005 season and really he wants to do something in 2006," he said.

"Then during the year he's going to decide whether he's going to continue or not."

Schumacher's rivals, starting with 24-year-old Spaniard Alonso, are not writing off his chances of adding to his record 84 race wins and collecting an unprecedented eighth championship.

"I think if Ferrari are still showing us the potential in these winter tests, then arriving in Bahrain the first name I will see on the times will be Michael's for sure because he will probably be the favourite," said Alonso at the end of January.

With Renault and Honda looking like the teams to beat in the past month of tests, while Ferrari had a number of technical problems in recent testing at the Bahrain circuit, that may not be the case.

Yet Schumacher remains the ultimate as well as the oldest competitor.

If Ferrari give him the right car, even a car with the No 5 on it rather then the No 1 that he has become accustomed to, then he can legitimately expect to be challenging for the title.

"I don't have a feeling that I am an old man hopelessly lost against these young guys," he told reporters when Ferrari launched their new 248F1 car. "Not at all. In a lot of areas, I am still able to show them what is possible."

"He's undoubtedly one of the best drivers in the history of the sport," British rival David Coulthard told F1 Racing magazine recently.

"He is, I have no doubt, considerably fitter than other drivers who have become champions in previous years at a greater age than his.

"It really is a question of whether the design team at Ferrari will give him a package at least the equal of the next best car on the grid. If they do, then Michael will be in a position to win again."