The first and second careers of Michael Schumacher they were very different. The relentless ‘cannibal’ who trodden the tracks in a sumptuous way between 1991 and 2006, collecting victories, records and world titles, was replaced by a man who learned to lose, aboard a Mercedes that was far too immature to aim for win. The ‘Kaiser’ returned to take, in fact, the descending parable of him. An almost due move, which served to quench his hunger and the never quenched doubt of having left too early in 2006.
Only one podium, Valencia 2012, and one pole ‘ghost’ for statistics, that obtained in Monte Carlo in the same year. The latter was the most precious gem of the three-year return, comparable in beauty to the many triumphs in Benetton and Ferrari. A very tight qualifying session, which saw the German win at the last second useful, 1’14.301: 80 thousandths of an advantage over Webber’s Red Bull, 147 over Rosberg’s twin Mercedes, 282 over Lewis Hamilton in McLaren, Alonso in Ferrari closed sixth , Raikkonen eighth with Lotus, Vettel tenth.
That was the real feat of the 43-year-old Schumacher: to be able to get behind his drivers much younger than him, with more competitive cars than his W03, on a track of indisputable charm and difficulty. A rear-end collision at Senna (Bruno, who was racing for Williams at the time) in Spain, however, made him remedy 5 penalty positions, to be served right on the Principality grid. In the blink of an eye one of his most beautiful poles disappeared from the almanacs. The race from the third row was to be forgotten: first Grosjean squeezed him against the barriers at the start, then a technical problem on his Mercedes condemned him to retire.
Michael’s happiness remains, that finger raised in the return lap, the flicker of the champion. “I’ve always believed that you should never, ever give up. And you always have to keep fighting, even when there is only a very small chance“: Michael Schumacher put his own words into practice on the track on that Saturday in May 2012. And not only that.
#Monaco #Schumachers #ghost #pole