Schumacher's Lament

02/26/96

The Associated Press reported some of the problems that German Formula One driver Michael Schumacher has faced this season at testing in Estoril, Portugal. Schumacher drives a red F310 Ferrari V-10 for the Ferrari team. Last season Schumacher completed his fourth full season racing for Benetton-Renault, and won the F1 world championship.

This season Schumacher is better paid (Ferrari hired him away from Benetton by offering him a record $48 million over 2 years), but he is not having any success on the track. Two weeks remain before the 1996 season opens in Adelaide Australia: while all the other drivers have been testing this season's new racers, Schumacher has spent a lot of time in last year's model and a lot of time not practicing at all, due to technical problems.

During last week's testing at Estoril, for instance, Schumacher didn't get in a complete day of tests. Instead he weathered a barrage of problems: cars and parts stuck in Italy, gearbox problems, fires in the engine compartment, etc., etc. When the car that Schumacher is supposed to race this year (the F310) finally arrived in Estoril and the engine that is supposed to power it was finally fitted, Schumacher hit the track. He didn't even complete one lap before his car conked out and he had to be towed back to the pitbox: electrical problems.

Schumacher has put defending his world champion status out of his mind for this season. He says that 1997 will be his year.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel