What was Michael Schumacher thinking today at the Hungarian Grand Prix? I can't fathom it, frankly. He's driving a lemon, and hasn't any chance what so ever of winning a race, much less the championship, and he pulls a maneuver today almost driving Rubens Barrichello into the pit lane wall.
Today we saw a glimpse of the old Schumacher. The one that frankly wasn't very pleasant. The race stewards weren't very amused either, giving him a ten spot grid penalty at the next race. That's assuming the car can even manage to qualify more than ten places above the very back of the grid, of course.
At this point, Schumacher has no chance of the world championship and likely won't see the podium all year in Ross Brawn's pathetic excuse for an F1 car (a huge surprise given the success of last season, but reality none the less). He'd be far better off considering doing some "reputation management" rather than trying to push old teammates into walls at 180 MPH. He has nothing to gain, and rather a lot to lose.
I rather enjoy watching the new Schumacher, rather than the old one. The new Schumacher has a sense of humour and a personality beyond that of a "spoiled race car driver" (see, Alonso or Vettel for examples of the latter). I hope that his sense comes back to him soon. Spa-Francorchamps is only four weeks away and I'd like to see Schumacher race again.
In the meantime; it was a nice overtake for Barrichello ... he deserved both the track position and the race point.
UPDATE: 02 August 2010
Apparently, the new Michael Schumacher is still in there. He apologized to Barrichello for the incident;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8878400.stm
I think the translation of his statement might be a little rough though;
"I didn't want to endanger him with my manoeuvre. If he
had this feeling I am sorry, this was not my intention."
Since publicly stating that he (Schumacher) agrees with the race stewards decision;
"Immediately after the race yesterday I was still in the
heat of it all, but after I looked again at the situation with
Rubens I have to say that the stewards were correct with
their judgement."
I am not sure he would be apologizing in such a way as to make it sound like Barrichello was wrong in thinking he was in danger. I have the feeling the translation is a tad "off".
In all though, it's nice to see Schumacher come out and take responsibility instead of just passing it off as a "racing incident", which really it wasn't.
