Time For Miracle

Seven-times Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher has come out of retirement and signed for Mercedes. The German, who will be 41 on 3 January, was unveiled at the Mercedes factory in Brackley, Northamptonshire. Schumacher will partner compatriot Nico Rosberg in the team that won the drivers' and constructors' titles in 2009 in its former guise as Brawn.
Schumacher retired at the end of 2006 but will now return to the sport he dominated after signing a three-year deal with Mercedes. He will reportedly earn £6.2m after reuniting with Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn, who masterminded all seven of his titles, the first two with Benetton in 1994-5 and the subsequent five with Ferrari from 2000-4. Schumacher was forced to call off a planned temporary comeback as a stand-in for injured Ferrari driver Felipe Massa in the summer because of a neck injury sustained in a motorcycle accident last February. But Schumacher recently underwent medical checks and is confident he is back to full fitness.
This summer Schumacher signed a revised contract as a consultant for Ferrari, but the Italian team have had to release him from his contract to enable him to race for the "Silver Arrows". Schumacher revealed that it was Ferrari's request for him to fill in for Massa that sparked a desire to make a permanent return to the cockpit. Schumacher revealed he had spoken to Brawn in November about a potential return to F1 and that the return of the Mercedes name to F1 proved the final persuasion.
Mercedes have completely changed their driver line-up following world champion Jenson Button's departure to McLaren and Rubens Barrichello's move to Williams. The team are known to want German rising star Sebastian Vettel in the long term, but the 22-year-old is contracted to Red Bull until the end of 2012. Rosberg signed for Mercedes shortly after the season and, after weeks of speculation, Schumacher arrives as his high-profile team-mate.
Schumacher's comeback is the most high profile in F1 since Austrian Niki Lauda came out of a two-year retirement for the 1982 season to race for McLaren. Lauda, who was 33 at the time, went on to win a third world title in 1984. Juan Manuel Fangio is Formula 1's oldest world champion, the Argentine won a fifth world championship at the age of 46 before retiring. Nigel Mansell won the 1994 Australian Grand Prix at the age of 41, having stepped in as a substitute for Williams for four races following the death of Ayrton Senna. Now, Schumacher has said that he intends to make a glorious comeback by challenging for the 2010 world championship.
Schumacher's decision brings his career to a neat conclusion - Mercedes, for whom he was racing in sportscars at the time, paid for his F1 debut with Jordan in 1991 but he has never raced for them in F1. Mercedes pulled out of F1 in 1955 after winning back-to-back titles with Juan Manuel Fangio.
The impression gained is that the German wants to pick up where he left off with Ferrari when he retired in 2006. Those suggesting that he may see his role more as a mentor to Nico Rosberg, the 24-year-old who would be his team-mate, than a team-leading championship contender, are wide of the mark. He is said to be looking to add not only to his record 91 grand-prix wins, but also to his unparalleled haul of seven drivers’ titles and he has already spent many hours discussing his new car with the Mercedes team.
The last time we saw Michael Schumacher driving a Formula One car was at the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2006, when he stole the show on a day that was supposed to be dominated by Fernando Alonso winning his second successive world title.
Schumacher was imperious in São Paulo as he scythed through the field after dropping to twentieth with a puncture early in the race before finishing fourth, passing Kimi Raikkonen, his successor at Ferrari, with three laps to go for good measure. We thought then that we were watching the final drama of the most successful career in Formula One and that the man with seven world titles and 91 grand-prix victories would never race again.
The German legend was at the top of his game that day and was calling a halt to his career possibly prematurely, but few could have foreseen that he would return. Some judges wonder why Schumacher is prepared to risk his reputation again. How sad it would be, they argue, to see a champion trying to repeat his days of greatness at the age of 41 — as he will be at the start of next season — and make a fool of himself.
Some sportsmen try comebacks as part of a personal road to redemption or a mission to prove that they can recover after losing their way in the real world. Drugs, alcohol, marriage breakdown or depression are sometimes features in the background. This is not the case with Schumacher — his neck injury apart. Hard for me to admit this, but yeah...he is the man he always was and is ready to prove that even drivers in their forties can take on the best and win.
Some of the Ferrari fans were went ballistic though, knowing that their hero chose to drive to their bitter rival Mercedes. But the German already made his decision, so they have to eventually deal with their disappointment. Luckily, am not one of them. Nor that I will consider to become one of them now that the guy I hate wasn’t connected to the team any longer, NOPE. For me, the image of him and the Italian auto-maker is still there for some reasons. Hey, am a freak, so what?
Will he be as quick as he was? Eddie Irvine, his former team-mate at Ferrari, doubts it. So do I. But Schumacher is not the most successful driver of all time just because of his speed. As much as I don't like him in person, but everyone (yeah, including me even) knew that he has one of the most astute technical minds on the grid, he knows how to wring every ounce of performance out of a car and he is among the best tacticians in the sport. It may take him a few races to get up to speed, but get ready for a thrilling ride. Who knows? Miracle does happen sometime, don’t you think so?

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