Showman Michael Schumacher sets pulses racing on his return
The banner that hung above Garage 25 summed it up: Willkommen Zurück — welcome back. All that was missing was the fatted calf and a bottle of celebratory bubbly.
Michael Schumacher, Formula One’s prodigal son, returned to his spiritual home on Monday — the racetrack — and turned a dreary day of monotonous lap-after-lap testing into an extravagant party.
A pre-season warm-up that would usually have attracted the attention of only a couple of diehard Formula One fans in their bobble hats turned into a clamour to catch a glimpse of the most successful driver in history. Hundreds of fans poured through the gates of the faded Ricardo Tormo circuit on the outskirts of Valencia to see Schumacher back on duty for the first time in more than three years.
He may have retired in 2006 but he could never tear himself away from the one thing he does best. Like some fabled movie star, he kept his audience waiting while the supporting cast of Pedro de la Rosa, Sébastien Buemi and Nico Rosberg shook out the Formula One cobwebs and tested the cars that will contest what promises to be a riveting 2010 season.
Then, some six hours after the start of the first test session of the new year, there was the shriek of an engine behind the closed garage doors. Photographers and film crews gathered and fans gawped over the grandstand balcony.
Another 25 minutes, the doors opened and there he was, Schumacher at the wheel of his silver Mercedes, gently blipping the throttle. From then on, it was just like old times: 23 laps driven and the seven-times world champion was only 0.3sec off the fastest time of the day and almost a second quicker than Rosberg, his new team-mate at Mercedes.
“It was just like starting all over again,†Schumacher, 41, said. “I was shocked on the first lap, extremely excited in the second and then I just felt like a little boy with a new toy. I feel very good. I have worked out very well, prepared myself extremely precisely.â€
The only incongruous part of the scene was that Schumacher conducted his day in the silver of Mercedes and not the flame red of Ferrari, the famous Scuderia with whom he won five of his titles. Even Schumacher was slightly fazed as he followed the car of Felipe Massa, another man on the comeback trail after his horrific accident last July at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Thankfully, the Brazilian was none the worse for his six months out of the cockpit and posted the fastest time of the day, just to remind Schumacher that there are new kids on the block whom he has to beat if he wants to add to his collection of records.
The banner that hung above Garage 25 summed it up: Willkommen Zurück — welcome back. All that was missing was the fatted calf and a bottle of celebratory bubbly.
Michael Schumacher, Formula One’s prodigal son, returned to his spiritual home on Monday — the racetrack — and turned a dreary day of monotonous lap-after-lap testing into an extravagant party.
A pre-season warm-up that would usually have attracted the attention of only a couple of diehard Formula One fans in their bobble hats turned into a clamour to catch a glimpse of the most successful driver in history. Hundreds of fans poured through the gates of the faded Ricardo Tormo circuit on the outskirts of Valencia to see Schumacher back on duty for the first time in more than three years.
He may have retired in 2006 but he could never tear himself away from the one thing he does best. Like some fabled movie star, he kept his audience waiting while the supporting cast of Pedro de la Rosa, Sébastien Buemi and Nico Rosberg shook out the Formula One cobwebs and tested the cars that will contest what promises to be a riveting 2010 season.
Then, some six hours after the start of the first test session of the new year, there was the shriek of an engine behind the closed garage doors. Photographers and film crews gathered and fans gawped over the grandstand balcony.
Another 25 minutes, the doors opened and there he was, Schumacher at the wheel of his silver Mercedes, gently blipping the throttle. From then on, it was just like old times: 23 laps driven and the seven-times world champion was only 0.3sec off the fastest time of the day and almost a second quicker than Rosberg, his new team-mate at Mercedes.
“It was just like starting all over again,†Schumacher, 41, said. “I was shocked on the first lap, extremely excited in the second and then I just felt like a little boy with a new toy. I feel very good. I have worked out very well, prepared myself extremely precisely.â€
The only incongruous part of the scene was that Schumacher conducted his day in the silver of Mercedes and not the flame red of Ferrari, the famous Scuderia with whom he won five of his titles. Even Schumacher was slightly fazed as he followed the car of Felipe Massa, another man on the comeback trail after his horrific accident last July at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Thankfully, the Brazilian was none the worse for his six months out of the cockpit and posted the fastest time of the day, just to remind Schumacher that there are new kids on the block whom he has to beat if he wants to add to his collection of records.
