Wandering Soul

16 years. 247 races. 68 pole positions. 75 fastest laps. 153 podium finishes. 90 wins. 7 world championships. One man. Michael Schumacher.

After ruling the Formula 1 circuits for so many years, Michael recently announced his retirement from professional racing. For me, F1 will never be the same again. He had hinted at the announcement earlier this season saying that if he didn’t win the championship this time, he will consider his retirement. Speculation was rife then that he might leave Ferrari and move to Reanult or McLaren. I couldn’t quite digest that. Michael Schumacher is synonymous with Ferrari, and I couldn’t imagine him in any other colour, but the scarlet. But by the looks of it, he will win the championship this season and retire in a winning form.I was not born an F1 fan, but I was turned into one that Sunday afternoon in 1998. With nothing else to do, I resorted to watching the Suzuka Grand Prix. Schummi had secured pole postion, but he stalled his Ferrari on the starting grid and as per rules, had to restart from the back of the grid. What I saw after that was the most amazing driving ever as Schummi overtook cars one after the other. With 15 laps left in the race, he had regained lost ground and was leading the race, when he suffered a tire puncture and had to retire. He perched himself on the side wall, a dejected disappointed look in his eyes, and watched Mika Hakkinen go on to win the race, finally hitching a ride on Mika’s Mclaren till the pits. Michael lost the ‘98 driver’s championship, but I was hooked on to F1 and Schummi.

The 2004 season was arguably the best in Schummi’s career, winning 13 of the 18 races. This was the period when other teams and random people around the world who don’t understand the sport started saying that F1 was being rigged and even went on to the extent of saying that the sport will die because only one man is winning every time. Well, guys, the one guy was winning because of his sheer driving skill and impeccable support from his team. If the other teams could not keep up, it was their problem.

The 2005 season was a bad one for Ferrari and Schummi. But they came back with a bang this season. After trailing Alonso throughout Michael, in one of his trademark comebacks, has managed to cut the gap down to just 2 points. With 3 races to go, my money is on Michael to win the world championship one last time before retirement.

After the Italian GP, Ferrari issued a press release stating that he would retire from racing at the end of the 2006 season. Schumacher personally confirmed his retirement in a very emotional statement during the post-race press conference

In the words of the three-times F1 world champion Niki Lauda:

If the best guy in the world retires it is certainly a sad day. You can say whatever you want, he won seven world championships and he might win another one. There is nobody like him in the world, he is unique. It’s sad that he retires. But I know you have to retire one day and I respect that.

I’ll second that. Hats off to you Michael and farewell. I’ll miss watching you drive and seeing you jump on the podium in celebration.