Adenau, Sept 08: Near F1 champion Michael Schumacher entertained his Ferrari fans on a special motorsport day.
Michael Schumacher, preparing for the first of three crucial Grands Prix races, took time out on Sunday (September 7) to entertain his loyal Ferrari fans at the Nurburgring track. The 2002 World Champion has had a bad Formula One season by his standards and goes to the Italian Grand Prix on September 14 with the slenderest of leads over his two rivals. Schumacher has 72 points, Juan Pablo Montoya of the Williams team has 71 and McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen has 70. After Italy, there only remain the USA and Japanese Grands Prix to complete the season. Michael Schumacher hopes to secure his fifth world champion title with victories, but so far they have been few. In 2002 he arrived at Monza for the Grand Prix having won 10 races already in the season. This year he will arrive having won just four.


The Ferrari team has not been favoured by changes in the rules for the 2003 season regarding qualifying procedure, the opportunity for mechanics to work on cars shortly before the race and team orders. This season is producing one of the closest finishes to a championship to be seen for many years, and some have said that is a result of the rule changes.


But Schumacher disagreed : "I don't think it is because of the rules but rather that three teams have built really competitive cars, which are of a very similar standard. Rules can be set up at any time but if there is a difference in the speed of the different cars then that will always show up at some point, rules that benefit those that have the best car, and this year it was a really extremely close run thing," he said.


Bureau Report