8.1.2006

The following article appeared in the German Der Spiegel magazine

Michael Schumacher makes it exciting. Only in the middle of this year will the seven times World Champion decide whether to extend his contract with Ferrari. The F1 driver expressed himself self-critically about the past racing season.

Two months before the beginning of the new season Schumacher, in a discussion with Der Spiegel, outlined the criteria for his decision whether to continue beyond 2006 as an F1 driver. "The car must be competitive", said the 37- year old. "If I don't even have a chance of winning races and fighting for the title, then I don't have a great desire to continue my career". In addition Schumacher wants Ferrari to increase the size of the team. "If we want progress we need additional people. In Formula One one cannot afford to rest. I want to know in what direction Ferrari is heading".

After the loss of the World Championship title to the Spanish Renault driver Fernando Alonso, 24, Schumacher practices self-criticism . He made "errors which I should not have permitted myself. After all the successes carelessnesses can creep in, one can depend too much on a routine process". As a consequence he went straight into his fitness studio at the end of the previous season, in order to train. "At the moment I have a burning desire for racing like seldom before", says Schumacher who, for the first time, interrupted his winter holidays in December to test for Ferrari: "I do not have the feeling that I have earned the break."

The 2005 season, which Schumacher finished with only one Grand Prix victory and third in the championship, whilst Ferrari failed for the first time since 1999 to win the Constructors title, is regarded by the German as "catastrophic. Indeed, it took us until season-end to understand the aerodynamics of our car. Sometimes it was as if bedeviled." However "the defeats have shaken everyone awake"says Schumacher to The Spiegel: "Everyone wants to get back to the old times. There is real bite again."

 

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