Mercedes offers Schumacher new non-racing job
4 October, 2012
Dieter Zetsche with Michael Schumacher
Oct.4 (GMM) Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche has invited Michael Schumacher to stay in the Mercedes family in a non-racing role, despite being replaced by Lewis Hamilton in their F1 team.
“My personal wish is that he [Schumacher] remains a partner of our enterprise after his active time in the Mercedes cockpit,” he is quoted by the Bild am Feiertag newspaper.
Actually, it was believed until Thursday that the seven time world champion – having been told he is being replaced for 2013 by Hamilton – was weighing up his options elsewhere on next year’s grid.
But Mercedes’ motor racing president Norbert Haug is also leaving the door open for the 43-year-old to take up a different role.
He and Zetsche have both said it was Mercedes’ fault that Schumacher failed to win during his three-year comeback period.
And Haug told SID news agency there is no rift or “tension” in the wake of the Hamilton news.
“He [Schumacher] has assured us that, in light of the long term dimension, he fully understands the commitment with Lewis Hamilton,” said Haug.
“There is no tension between Michael and the team and we can absolutely imagine a further cooperation,” he added.
Subbed by AJN.
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- Mercedes boss hails amazing Schumacher
- Schumacher supported by Mercedes boss
Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche is the former head of Chrysler, you remember the company that Daimler pilfered Billions of Dollars in cash reserves into Daimler bank accounts leaving Chrysler barely surviving.
Mercedes road car quality is so bad right now under Zetsche’s leadership that only the fool hardy buy a Mercedes road car these days.
@ Sam
Schumacher only returned because he thought the 2009 title winning Brawn was going to have advantages like he had at Ferrari.
Schumacher has been fully exposed as nothing more then a midfield driver at best. He has been soundly beaten by his teammate for three years running now and his teammate is not considered a top driver.
SCHUMACHER is the GREATEST EVER. In ’94 and ’95, he won the World Titles when his rival’s car Williams was the fastest car on the grid. Between ’96 and ’99, he won races and nearly won titles in a Ferrari that was so slow his teammate would finish outside top-10. In 2000, the McLaren of Hakkinen was faster, but who won that year? Michael. From 2001 to 2002, his Ferrari was way faster than the others, no doubt. Then again, in 2003, in an unreliable car he again emerged victorious. At the grand old age of 43, in 2012 (think, he first raced in 1991!) Schumacher claimed the Pole Position in an awful car in the most difficult of tracks at Monaco. Those who deride him need to get a life.
This is nothing more then Mercedes trying to save face in an effort to protect the false image of Schumacher.
Just think if Schumacher did not have those 2 second a lap faster Bridgestone tires at Ferrari he would have been driving around with the mid pack drivers just like he has done the past three years.
As for the Mercedes car, it won the world titles under the Brawn banner in 2009 and it has won a race with Nico Rosberg so to say the fault is everything except Schumacher is a joke at best.
Schumacher and Ferrari were given tires so exotic by Bridgestone that no other team was even allowed to look at them let alone handle them.
That just shows the lack of class of Bridgestone for not being fair in their tire development. Take away Schumacher’s exotic tires and away go all those championships and wins.
Schumacher has been fully exposed as the fraud he really is the past three years. He thought he was going to step into that 2009 title winning Brawn and continue on but he did not have his exotic Bridgestone tires to mask his average driving abilities this time.
It has now been exposed that it was those Ferrari test teams who did all the development work on those Ferrari and not Schumacher as the past three years have shown Schumacher is not a great development driver as he has taken Mercedes backwards.
A drivers reputation can be cemented more when he’s not got the best car than when he has. Think Senna in 1993 – no chance of winning the title but extracting every ounce of what his McLaren had and scoring some brilliant wins, including his careers best at Donington. His reputation was built as much in his Toleman and Lotus days, and latter years at McLaren, as in 88, 90 and 91 when he won the title. Schumacher, conversely, isn’t widely considered as a true great despite winning 7 titles and 91 races, because many of them came with a huge advantage in machinery and tyres.
Thank God Mercedes have admitted their fault