F1: Schumacher close to Mercedes with the blessing of Ferrari
The Ferrari team announced Monday, December 14 it would not prevent the departure of Mercedes in the German Michael Schumacher, World Champion Formula 1 seven times and consultant to the Scuderia since the end of his racing career, in 2006.
According to reports, he would be on the verge of signing a contract with Mercedes, who recently assumed control of the team Brawn. According to the electronic edition of the daily Bild, Schumacher has given his verbal agreement with Norbert Haug and Ross Brawn, the owners of the Mercedes team. The Ferrari boss has reacted to this hypothesis. “It is clear that if he decides to take another route, the agreement between us will no longer be valid, it makes sense,” said Luca di Montezemolo. “It can not work for one of our competitors and us together,” he added. Schumacher said in September that it would work for Ferrari for three more years, but the president of the Italian team said that the sentence was “no commitment”. “I did not yet spoken.’s A friend but not a member of our team, but he is a consultant for our road cars,” he added.
Schumacher had planned to return to F1 in August driving a Ferrari to replace Felipe Massa seriously injured in a racing accident. He was waived because of the aftermath of a neck injury suffered earlier in the year in a motorcycle accident. Ferrari had also considered the possibility to assign a drive when the leave to bring three cars in Grand Prix but he was given the charge of Formula 1 were opposed to this project.