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Schumacher contemplates his exit strategy
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-01-20 07:00
MADONNA DI CAMPIGLIO: There is an element of ritual to Ferrari's annual
winter retreat in the Dolomites but this year Michael Schumacher broke with
tradition.
For the past five years the German's message for his first press conference
of the year has been the same - he is as motivated as ever, has no thoughts of
quitting and wants to keep on winning.
Last week, after Ferrari's deeply disappointing performance last season, the
37-year-old failed to reproduce that mantra.
He talked about when he would decide about his retirement, the involvement of
his wife in that decision and even talked up the man so many Italians would love
to see replace him at Ferrari - motorcycling world champion Valentino Rossi.
Given Schumacher's character, his peerless professionalism, focus and intense
desire to be the best, it would be unwise to presume, however, that he is about
to wind down his career before bowing out.
In fact the last thing the seven-times world champion wants is another season
as an also-ran - that would, he says, be most likely to cause him to quit
because he simply cannot stand not being the best.
"The joy comes in driving but if you do testing and you drive at two seconds
off the pace consistently and whatever you do you don't go anywhere, so that
means all the effort that you put in is meaningless, it is quite frustrating,"
he said.
"We had quite a bit of this last year with all the testing we have done,
around 90,000 kilometres. If you imagine that if you don't progress in spite of
all this effort, it is tiring.
"But if I look at the tests I have been doing in December and now, being able
to do good lap times, and feel the car, and push even harder and get a result,
that is what is so great about racing and what I enjoy."
Schumacher says Ferrari's competitiveness will be the basis on which he
decides in mid-season whether to sign a new deal with the Scuderia, retire or
utilize the tantalising "one percent" chance he has left himself to switch to
another team.
Like all great sportsmen, he is now facing that most
difficult of decisions - how and when to end his career.
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