Pride at stake

Los Angeles: Amid an off-season already brimming with driver and team changes in Formula One, speculation is mounting that the sport's all-time champion, Michael Schumacher, might be back in a race car next year.

The German-born Schumacher, who turns 41 next month, retired after the 2006 season after becoming the only driver to win seven Formula One titles, the last five with Ferrari.

But with the German automaker Mercedes planning to field a Formula One team in 2010 and still needing a second driver, talk is reaching a fever pitch that the team might lure Schumacher out of retirement. Media outlets, led by those in Germany have reported that Ferrari — which still retains Schumacher as a consultant — has all but cleared him to race elsewhere, and that an announcement by Mercedes might come by the end of this month.

Insider view

Schumacher himself has not publicly confirmed anything yet, but "the view from inside Formula One, not just in my team, is that they all hope it will happen," Nick Fry, Mercedes GP team chief executive, said this week.

James Allen, who runs a website devoted to Formula One, also noted that Schumacher must be sure he's injury-free before returning in order to avoid a repeat of what happened this summer.

After Ferrari driver Felipe Massa was seriously hurt in a crash in July, Schumacher stunned the sport by saying he would end his retirement to replace Massa temporarily.

But a neck injury from a motorcycle accident earlier in the year prevented Schumacher from taking Massa's ride — a Formula One driver's neck must withstand tremendous G-forces — and it's an open question whether that problem is behind him.

So is the question of whether Schumacher could return to his sport in a form consistent with his remarkable record, a challenge other once-retired athletes ranging from Lance Armstrong to Michael Jordan have taken up with mixed results. Indeed, reigning Formula One champion Jenson Button told the British newspaper News of the World last weekend that "Schumacher coming back to F1 is great news for the sport. But I don't know if it will be great news for Michael Schumacher.

"He will be putting his reputation on the line coming back into the sport," Button said.

Button was the surprise winner of this year's championship for a team called Brawn GP that had taken over the old Honda team. Brawn was led by former Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn, who had helped Schumacher win his championships. Button then became one of several drivers to change teams after the season ended by moving to McLaren Mercedes.

Have your say
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