Michael Schumacher Says Sorry

27 Aug 2010

You might not have thought it possible, but Michael Schumacher has apologised to Rubens Barrichello for nearly pushing him into the pit wall at high speed, a move that could have ended in disaster.

During his long career as a Formula One driver Michael has always been one of the more aggressive drivers on the track and he seems to take great personal offence at being overtaken, even when the car overtaking him is considerably faster than his. Although the rules forbid a driver from weaving from side to side in order to defend his position, Michael seems to obey the letter of the law whist at the same time ignoring its spirit. His move against Barrichello was extremely dangerous  as he left him just centimetres in which to manoeuvre. A lesser driver than Barrichello would not have been able to do so and would almost certainly have crashed.

Of course Schumacher knew that it was Barrichello behind him, and he is fully aware of Barrichello’s driving skills, however this really was taking things to the extreme, and he has now acknowledged the fact, even if it was just in a text message.

Barrichello said that he had receives a text from Schumacher which said that it had not been his intention to push him into the wall and that he was sorry that Barrichello had that impression, which does seem to be a rather guarded apology. Barrichello, with typical graciousness replied “thank you, no problem”.

As a result of his blocking manoeuvre Schumacher received from the race stewards a ten place grid drop at this week’s Grand Prix at Spa in Belgium.