The Hindu : Sport : Welcome back, King Michael

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Welcome back, King Michael

Schumacher had a rare combination
of winning attributes, writes Nirmal Shekar

Michael Schumacher has done the unthinkable. But that is exactly what you might have thought when a certain Barack Hussein Obama threw his hat in the ring to seek temporary accommodation on a legendary piece of Washington real estate which no man of colour could, until then, claim as his home address in the famous Land of the Free.

Great sportsmen often confound your imagination and bamboozle your quivering grey matter. Another day, another sport — one far less risky and rather more charitable to the ageing veterans than Formula One — and John McEnroe might have said, “You cannot be serious!”

Obviously, Schumacher is not taking the injured Felipe Massa’s place in the Ferrari team for a bit of weekend fun on the Valencia street circuit next month. He is bloody serious about delivering what he can, at age 40, to a team to which his loyalties are beyond question.

But why is he doing it? What does he have to prove in a sport in which he has been widely acclaimed as one of the greatest of all time after winning a record seven world championships and 91 Grands Prix?

Part of the rhythm

Comebacks are part of the rhythm of every sporting year. Athletes make comebacks all the time. But when a Bjorn Borg or a Lance Armstrong or a Michael Schumacher attempts it, the story is as big as it can get and it is something that cannot be derisively dismissed as a potentially doomed attempt to recreate past magic.

It would be hard to believe that the great German driver has made the difficult decision with an eye on another world championship or in an attempt to improve on his already formidable record.

"Though it is true the Formula One chapter has been closed for me for some time, it is also true that for loyalty reasons to the team I cannot ignore this unfortunate situation. But as the competitor I am, I also very much look forward to facing this challenge,” said Schumacher.

Like actors who cannot ever live without the smell of greasepaint and the roar of the audience, sportsmen find it impossible to survive away from the field of action, away from all the adulation and the adrenaline-induced high.

Then again, given the circumstances in Formula One as well as Schumacher’s unique status in the sport he dominated for so long, it may not be wise to shove the German’s comeback into a readily accessible slot we may all be familiar with from sporting history.

Relishing the challenge

The challenge for an athlete making a comeback is in equal parts physical and mental. And on both fronts, Schumacher may believe that he has it in him to face the challenge from far younger men who have been at it week after week in the two and a half years he has been away from the sport.

But gym fitness and the confidence that no doubt comes with astounding past accomplishments may not be enough in the heat of the battle during a season when testing between the races has been banned. This means Schumacher can get into the cockpit of the Ferrari F60 only 48 hours ahead of the race scheduled for August 23.

No matter all these drawbacks, almost everybody involved with the sport — one that has been blighted this season by political infighting and myriad other problems — has welcomed the great man’s return as the best thing that has happened to the Formula One in 2009.

Sublime skills

The reason for all the excitement is obvious. For, Schumacher at his peak was an exceptional champion with a rare combination of winning attributes — sublime skills, mind-boggling speed, a flawless technique, extraordinary physical fitness, an almost mystical level of motivation and, most of all, near-superhuman courage in the face of adversity.

“A Formula One car is really an animal because it responds to different kinds of treatment. A highly bred racehorse, a thoroughbred in its sensitivity and nervousness,” said Jackie Stewart, a three-time world champion, long years ago.

In the entire history of the legendary Italian racing team, no single driver has ever been as wonderfully attuned to its cars’ sensitivities and nerves as Schumacher was. Stewart’s “thoroughbred” animals willingly obeyed the German maestro’s commands time and again like well-trained police dogs.

With only seven races remaining, the leader of the drivers’ championship, Jenson Button, is unlikely to hit the panic button on spotting the former world champion’s Ferrari on the grid.

But Schumi’s return has opened up possibilities for the remaining part of the season that even the eternal fabulists among the Formula One fans might not have dared dream of.

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