September the eighth 2006 was a monumental day in the history of the sport of formula one racing. Seven time world champion and legend of the sport had just won the “LXXVII Gran Premio Vodafone d'Italia” or more commonly the 2006 grandprix of Italy. It was not his victory that took significance that day, this was Michael Schumacher winning and scoring podiums had become almost synonymous with his name, it was the fact that he had announced his retirement from active open wheel racing a job he had been doing for the last fifteen years.
When he left the sport finally in October 2006 many hailed him as the greatest driver that sport had ever seen. In his fifteen years in the sport he turned the F1 paddock into his personal play ground. His methods, uncanny and sometimes unethical also, set new standards and new levels of achievement that the sport had never seen before.
He became the face of the sport a face that could represent the sport be its public image, it was face that was meant to drive the crowds wild with supreme driving skills, a face that could handle the press and put them in their place when required this was a job “schumi” did with complete ease.
His retirement posed many awkward questions. As it turned out the 2007 season was know as the post Schumacher season or rather the beginning of the post Schumacher era. This era saw three new deserving world champions each in their form. The last of which was the 2009 championship which was in many ways a redefining moment in the sport it brought about the resurgence of one person Ross Brawn.
He was one of the men behind Schumacher’s success in his years at the Ferrari team. Ross Brawn was what we could call a ‘Swaroski crystals” of the sport his supreme engineering acumen and skill for race planning made him one of the most sought after technical personnel in the sport.
Ross Brawn had been made the team principal of the bleakly successful but well funded Honda racing team in 2008. At the end of the 2008 season owing to the worldwide recession Honda decide to pull the plug on its racing team and all racing activities. This left the Honda team in a quandary because it had worked for most of 2008 on developing the 2009 car which it believed was truly race winning.
Ross brawn and technical director Nick Fry bought out the team and named it the Brawn GP. It turned out to be one of the most successful teams in the sport winning both the driver and constructors titles in its debut year.
It was this one event that the public see as the reason for Schumacher to return the place he made his personal playground for so many years His decisions changed everything for me," Schumacher once said. "Ross is a very clever man who can examine a situation and give us a plan to win. Not everybody has that gift. He is the best in Formula One." said Schumacher to the U.K based telegraph newspaper.
He will make his return in a Mercedes powered race car. His return is a monumental phase in the history of the sport. He joins a long line of drivers which includes the likes of people like Niki Lauda , Alan Prost and Nigell Mansell who retired or were forced to do so but managed to return and were extremely victorious.
His return will signal a huge upturn for what is otherwise been a dropping spectator sport in the last three years though this would mean his two decade old fan following will now be a silver and black army rather than a red one.
The “new” set of regulations for the sport which have been introduced for sport in 2010 are almost similar to the ones that existed in 1991 the year Schumacher debuted. This will mean that in some ways this re entry is more like a second debut for Schumacher. This re entry has added a new line of thought that many people subscribe to, which is to say that perhaps Schumacher retired prematurely from the sport and this was his chance to redeem and re-invent himself.
The return of Schumacher will mean that there will be four world champions racing for the winning titles. Each of these champions has their own styles of racing unique to them this is reminiscent of the 1978 season where it was the case of seven champions racing together.
The new point system will no longer allow one driver to dominate then standings which will increase competition allowing for people like Sebastian Vettel who is an up and coming driver pretty much moving along the same lines of Schumacher during his younger days. Such a system will allow for a greater sense of competition and more for the viewers and spectators to see.
But to realize what his comeback the Bahrain Grandprix on 14th of March 2010 is the starting point for what can only be billed as the re invention of the sport called Formula one .
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