Schumacher rumours gather pace

Heavens above, it’s actually going to happen, isn’t it?

The German tabloid Bild reported this weekend that Mercedes had agreed a one year contract with Michael Schumacher.  The German tabloids, in common with the majority of tabloids, are not always renowned for printing stories that have any basis in fact.  This particular paper, however, has been used in the past by both Willi Weber and Norbert Haug as a means of leaking stories, and if you’re wondering what they’ve got to do with anything, you should know that one is Michael’s manager and the other is awfully high up at Mercedes.

The latest is that Schumacher didn’t attend Ferrari’s Christmas party last weekend, and that the company will not stand in his way if he genuinely wishes to return.  Michael has done a lot of karting this last few weeks, and while he generally competes in a good number of charity events at this time of year, many are viewing this as a fitness test; in the summer, even a run in a kart was enough to show Schumi that his injured neck was not yet up to the demands of a Grand Prix.  That nobody, including the man himself, has made any comment on his fitness through the winter can only lead one to believe the injury has healed, though it is thought that this hasn’t been officially checked out.

James Allen, the respected racing journalist, has spent a lot of time detailing why there’s nothing in it for Michael and why a comeback doesn’t make sense.  He, like I, might just have overlooked that sometimes, the pleasure of driving on the limit is the only incentive a man needs, and that nobody in modern racing derives more pleasure from that than Michael Schumacher.  Allen’s sources in Italy and Germany all indicate that the deal is on, and that subject to medical clearance and a release from his Ferrari obligations, the most successful driver in history really is on the way back.

Memories of an anti-climactic summer are still raw, and it’d be wise not to get too excited.  Difficult, though, isn’t it?