The legend begins the preparations for his return

Seven times World Champion Michael Schumacher has began his preparations to mark his return to the Formula One track with the next race in Valencia.

The legendary German travelled to Ferrari's factory at Maranello yesterday to work at the Ferrari simulator, to check the functionality of the steering wheel and also presumably to learn the layout of the Valencia street circuit, where Schumacher has never driven before. Steering wheels in F1 cars are very different to the ones found in ordinary road cars. There are all sorts of buttons on the steering wheel to control different aspects of the car - everything from the pit radio to the pit-lane speed limiter and so on. As this year's regulations mean that cars now have KERS and movable front wings, all these functionalities are also controlled via buttons on the steering wheel.

Today, Schumacher is testing at the Mugello race track in Italy with the F2007 (Ferrari's 2007 Formula 1 car). Because the current in-season testing ban means that the teams are not allowed to do circuit testing with their 2009-spec cars, Schumacher opted to get some mileage in with the old car. The F2007 was borrowed from Ferrari's customer division F1 Clienti - one which offers wealthy enthusiasts the chance to drive old Grand Prix cars. Schumacher said on his website that although he cannot drive the F60 due to the testing ban, he still wants to get as much mileage in as possible. From next week onwards, he will continue to work on his physical fitness.

Although Schumacher has remained in top shape since retiring from Formula 1, he injured his neck early on in the year while doing a test session with a German Superbike team. Formula 1 drivers need to have very strong neck muscles to sustain the sheer amount of G-forces they encounter while driving, especially during breaking and cornering. However, it can be safely assumed that the 40-year-old German, who is statistically the best Formula 1 driver ever, is wise enough to have made a sensible decision on his come back. In other words, Schumacher would not have decided to come back to Formula 1 if he thought that he would not be fit enough, or that he would not have a chance to win. One thing is for sure, in spite of all the upgrades, Ferrari may not have the most competitive car this season, but with Schumacher at the wheel there is no doubt that he will be going flat out for a win. So once again, Ferrari may look towards Schumacher to get them their first victory of 2009.

Ferrari has also written to all their current rival teams and to the FIA to allow them to do one full day of official testing with the F60, in spite of the in-season testing ban. They argue that Schumacher has not driven in a competitive race since retiring in October 2006, and it is important that he gets to grip with their 2009 Formula 1 car before going into Valencia for the European Grand Prix. It remains to be seen whether the FIA, and the teams will allow Ferrari to do this.

It is 21 days to go to the start of the race weekend for the European Grand Prix, and me along with millions of other Schumacher fans around the world, cannot wait to see our idol/hero/God back on the track. As Germany's Bild newspaper had their headlines on Wednesday: "The God of racing is back. The legend will drive again."

I will leave you all with that. Drive safely everyone!

Michael Schumacher is coming back to Formula One, while the injured Massa continues his recovery

Amid mounting media speculation and rumours, Ferrari confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that 7 times World Champion Michael Schumacher will come out of his retirement to stand in for their injured driver Felipe Massa. In spite of the fact that Schumacher's manager Willi Webber continually denied the media speculations, Schumacher met with Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo and Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team principal Stefano Domenicalli on Tuesday to discuss the matter. At the end, after talking to Massa on the phone as well, Schumacher agreed to come out of his retirement to temporarily replace Massa until the Brazilian is fit enough to come back to racing again.

Over the next few days, Schumacher will undergo a very specific training programme to get him fully back to shape and to ensure that the motorbike injury he suffered early on in the year is not a problem anymore. His first race back will be the next round of the World Championship, which is the European Grand Prix in Valencia on 23rd of August. Although Schumacher has never driven in the Valencia street circuit, neither has he driven the F60 (Ferrari's 2009 Formula 1 car) before, it can be safely assumed that after winning 7 World Championships and 91 Grands Prix, it will not take him long to get fully back up to speed. Although because of the testing ban, he will not be allowed to do any test sessions with the F60 until Valencia, he can still take part in some straight line tests to get a feel of the car. Also the regulations do allow him to do a full testing session with the F2008 (Ferrari's 2008 Formula 1 car) to try and get fully back up to speed in a Formula 1 car. The last time Schumacher drove a Formula 1 car since his retirement was in April 2008, when he did a testing session with the F2008 in Barcelona.

This great news comes on the back of a remarkable recovery from Felipe Massa. His condition has been improving so well and so rapidly, that he has been taken out of the intensive care unit and may be even released from the AEK military hospital in Budapest by the end of the weekend. It was also confirmed by his doctors yesterday that he has now opened his left eye and there are no problems with it. They did some tests and the results showed that the vision in his left eye is intact. Massa also asked about who won the Hungarian Grand Prix last weekend, and also where did he qualify before the crash. When he found out that Hamilton came first, his reaction was: "But that was my race!" Just shows his true spirit and his competitive nature. Although the doctors did say that he could not remember anything about the crash, that is only a short term memory loss and nothing major.

Ferrari team princpal Stefano Domenicalli met with Massa again yesterday and told him that his red F60 will wait for him until he is ready to come back to racing again. The fact that Ferrari waited to make the announcement of Schumacher replacing Massa until he came out of intensive care, just shows how much the Brazilian is valued at Maranello.

For me, this is like my birthday and Christmas presents all wrapped up in one! I never imagined that I would ever get to see Michael drive for Ferrari in a Formula 1 race again. This is made all the more pleasant by the fact that Felipe is recovering so well and so quickly after such a horrendous crash. Until he returns to Formula 1 again, there could not have been anyone better to stand in for him on the track. Get well soon Felipe, and welcome back to Formula One Michael!

The street circuit of Valencia in Spain is hosting the next race of the World Championship, which is the European Grand Prix on the 23rd of August. I cannot wait! Until next time, drive safely everyone!

BMW to quit Formula One at the end of 2009

At an extraordinary press conference called early morning on Wednesday at BMW's headquarters in Munich, the German automaker's bosses confirmed that the company will be pulling out of Formula 1 at the end of the current season. On the back of a dissapointing campaign for the BMW Sauber F1 team, Dr. Norbert Reithofer, chairman of the BMW board of directors, said that this difficult decision was taken in line with the company's "strategic realignment".

Having been in Formula 1 for almost a decade now, first as an engine supplier to the customer Williams and then the Sauber F1 team, BMW took over the Sauber team to launch their own works F1 team at the beginning of 2006. But coming into their third season, the German auto giant, having spent hundreds of millions of euros on their Formula 1 operations over the years is yet to see a Grand Prix victory. With no remarkable turnaround in sight in the short term future, there has been talk from the beginning of the current season that the company might pull out at the end of this year if they do not show any clear progress.

BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen said that although it was a difficult decision, he fully understood the reason for the withdrawal. He said that although the employees at Hinwil and Munich would have like to continue this ambitious operation, he does understand why this decision was made from a corporate perspective. Theissen also said that they will continue to fight for some good results in the remaining few races to bid a good farewell to Formula 1.

BMW's director for development, Dr. Klaus Draeger, said that this season's poor results played a key part in the move to quit Formula 1.

It now remains to be seen what BMW decides to do with the BMW Sauber F1 team and its employees. They have a big F1 operation based at Hinwil in Switzerland and the fate of all those staff is hanging in the balance now. Although there might be several potential buyers interested to take over the operations and continue the team, perhaps with a new name and a new engine supplier.

Massa's condition now stable, doctors say full recovery is possible

Doctors at the AEK military hospital in Budapest, Hungary told reporters on Monday that Felipe Massa's condition is continuing to improve as he has been taken out of sedation and is now able to sleep on his own. Several CT scans have been performed on him since Saturday evening, and the results of all the scans were consistently negative which means that there were no inherent damage to his brain. His overall condition is now "still serious but not critical", which means that he is now out of danger.

Massa's family continues to be with him at his bedside, and he has been able to communicate and speak to them. His wife and his father talked to reporters on Monday and told them that Massa is being real strong and is fighting hard, because his condition has been improving every hour. They also thanked the millions of fans worldwide for the huge support shown towards Massa, and they said that the love and support of all his fans will definitely help him to recover fully. As the official websites of Ferrari and that of Felipe Massa continue to be inundated with tons of get well messages, Massa's wife Rafaela said that he will recover fully and get back to racing before long.

Although there were some press reports yesterday that Massa's left eye may have been permanently damaged during the accident which may result in the end of his racing career, doctors said that it is too early to confirm anything about that. Peter Bazso, the hospital's medical director, said that Massa is still unable to open his left eye which is why they have not been able to examine the vision yet. He said that it may take them several days before they can determine if Massa had suffered any form of lasting injury. Although he did say that a full recovery is very much possible.

Dino Altmann, the Chief Medical Officer of the Brazilian Grand Prix and Massa's private doctor, confirmed that Massa was now able to speak. He said that Massa wanted to know what happened to him and that he had some other questions as well. Altmann also said they haven't asked Massa yet if he was able to remember the accident. He then explained that the emergency surgery done on Saturday evening was "life-saving" for Massa, and that the surgery was done due to the skull fracture and not brain swelling.

The Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver is no longer artificially ventilated and is able to breathe on his own. He has also been able to sleep without the help of sedatives since yesterday. At this point in time, it seems that all of his injuries are now superficial and nothing internal. So hopefully, in due course, he will be able to recover fully without any lasting effects of that accident. Whether and when he is able to get back to racing, if at all, is a different matter altogether. Although his return to Formula One has not been ruled out by anyone, that is in no way the primary concern now.

Felipe Massa continues to be in the thoughts and prayers of millions of his fans worldwide. Forza Felipe, siamo con te!

Hamilton shines at the Hungaroring while Raikkonen gets Ferrari their third podium of the year

After a very dismal start to the season, reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton finally seems to have turned around his fortunes as he took the top step of the podium at the Hungaroring. Before the last race at the Nurburgring, McLaren-Mercedes introduced a host of new upgrades to the car and those upgrades did seem to be working. It was only an unfortunate tyre puncture in the opening moments of the German Grand Prix that spoiled Hamilton's race. However, that would not be the case in Hungary as the Briton drove a beautiful race to get his first podium and race victory since the 2008 Chinese Grand Prix.

Starting from 4th, Hamilton made very good use of his KERS to get into 3rd place and then pull a brilliant overtaking move on Webber on lap 2 to move up to 2nd. Sebastian Vettel, who started from 2nd, was immediately jumped by his team mate and then by Hamilton followed by Rosberg and Raikkonen as well. By the time Vettel was approaching turn 2 on the opening lap, he was down in 7th place. The young German eventually was forced to retire at around lap 25 due to a front suspension failure.

Up front though, Fernando Alonso made a good start from pole and because he was very light on fuel, he was pulling away from the rest of the field at almost half a second per lap before Hamilton started catching him. The McLaren was managing the tyres very well while Alonso was struggling with graining. That meant by lap 6 or 7, Hamilton had already made up about 3 or 4 seconds and was now right on Alonso's tail.

The lone Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen also was managing the tyres very well and was by then up into 4th place. Raikkonen, like Hamilton, also used his KERS well to get a very aggressive start. After that, he continued to put in some blistering laps and was catching up with Webber in front of him. Mark Webber's Red Bull was the only car among the front runners to have started with the prime (soft) tyres on, which are the harder of the two tyre compounds. All the other cars around him were on the super-soft option tyres, and were thus posting faster lap times.

With his rear tyres now graining badly, Alonso had to make his first pit stop very early on lap 11. This was another very quick pit stop, indicating that the Spaniard was on a three-stop strategy. However, coming out of the pits, it was shown on the television replays that his front right wheel had not been attached properly. About halfway around his outlap, the wheel came off entirely and that pretty much meant race over for Alonso after starting from pole. His front suspension was damaged which forced him to retire at around lap 13. It was this incident because of which, after the race, the race stewards felt that Renault had breached the safety regulations by failing to take any action once they found out about Alonso's loose wheel. As a result, Renault had been banned from the next round of the World Championship at Valencia, which is hosting the European Grand Prix.

Raikkonen and Webber both made their first pit stops at the same time, at around lap 19. A little mistake by the Red Bull Racing pit crew allowed Raikkonen to get ahead of Webber in the pits. However, when Raikkonen was cruising down the pit lane after finishing his pit stop, Webber was released right in his path and Raikkonen had to take evasive action to avoid a collision. The Ferrari driver however came out in front which meant that he was able to finish the race in 2nd place, in front of Webber. This was Raikkonen's 2nd podium finish of the year, the first one being at Monaco. This was also Ferrari's 3rd podium finish and their best result so far this year, after Felipe Massa's 3rd place finish in Germany.

Mark Webber should be relatively happy with his 3rd place finish, because the guys in front of him, Hamilton and Raikkonen, are not the Championship contenders this season. Among his main contenders for the Driver's Championship, his team mate Vettel did not even finish the race while his BrawnGP counterpart Jenson Button only managed to finish in 7th place. Because of this result, Webber has been able to leapfrog Vettel in the Championship to go to 2nd in the standings and is not too far behind Button.

It was quite surprising to see BrawnGP struggle so much during the race on Sunday. Although they had decent pace throughout the practice sessions, during the race Button particularly was struggling with graining. So his car was not working well, he did not have enough grip and the car was oversteering as well. Overall, Button was very dissappointed with the way the car was behaving. This is in stark contrast to the early part of the season where the BrawnGP cars were managing their tyres better than anyone else in hot conditions. Here in Hungary though, their main Championship rival Red Bull Racing were not only faster than them but were also managing the tyres better. So BrawnGP seems to have taken a step backwards while many other teams including Red Bull Racing, McLaren-Mercedes, Ferrari and even Williams have improved the performances of their cars by a big margin since the start of the season. It will be interesting to see that in the last part of the season, given their limited budget and resources, if BrawnGP are really able to keep up in development with their big spending rivals such as Red Bull Racing, McLaren-Mercedes and Ferrari. Although Ferrari and McLaren are not the title contenders this year, they can easily knock BrawnGP off the points in the remaining few races this season while Red Bull goes on to win several of those races. So if BrawnGP wants to defend its lead in the Constructors' Championship and for Button in the Driver's Championship, they really have to get their act together and very soon.

This has been a pretty strange race weekend at the Hungaroring. Although it was really heart-wrenching to see Felipe Massa's garage empty during the race on Sunday and his pit crew sitting idle, the good news is that he is responding really well to all the treatments he is getting at the AEK military hospital in Budapest. It was really touching to see Massa's pit crew, led by his race engineer and close friend Rob Smedley, put up a message on his pit board just before the race which went like this: "Forza Felipe, siamo con te". Translated from Italian to English, it means "be strong Felipe, our love is with you".

Throughout the day, almost all the drivers sent their best wishes to the Ferrari driver. Commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone visited Massa twice, once on Saturday evening and then again on Sunday morning to check on his progress. The Ferrari team has obviously been with him constantly to show how much they feel for him, and at the end of the race weekend his race engineer Rob Smedley stayed back in Budapest to be with him. Smedley looked absolutely devasted since the accident and quite understandably so, as him and Massa had been working closely for quite a long time now. Team principal Stefano Domenicalli, speaking to reporters after the race, praised Kimi Raikkonen's 2nd place finish in such difficult circumstances for the team and dedicated the result to Felipe Massa.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo also flew in from Italy today to visit Massa. He told reporters that Massa is not just a part of the Ferrari team but is more like a member of the Ferrari family. Di Montezemolo said that Ferrari's primary concern now is Massa's full recovery, no matter how long it takes. In the mean time, they will have to decide on a secondary driver to temporarily replace Massa but the Ferrari president said that they will take that decision in due course. Doctors say that the Brazilian may take anything from several weeks to months just to fully recover let alone get back to racing. So it is a dilemma for Ferrari as they have to choose someone to take Massa's place until he is able to come back to racing. Although some sensational media reports have suggested that 7 time World Champion Michael Schumacher may come out of his retirement to replace Massa for a few races, I personally think that the more likely replacement will be one of Ferrari's two test drivers - Spaniard Marc Gene or Italian Luca Badoer. Above all that though, me and I am sure every other Ferrari fan all around the world are primarily concerned with Massa's full recovery and nothing else.

Formula One now takes a break which means all the teams will shut down their factories for two weeks, to let their workers relax a bit and get some well deserved rest. The next race, Round 12 of the World Championship, is the European Grand Prix at Valencia in just under four weeks' time. Until then though, I will be keeping a very close eye on Felipe Massa's condition and hopefully he will continue to improve. He has got his whole family with him in Budapest now including his parents, his brother and his pregnant wife Rafaela. On top of them though, he is in the hearts and minds and thoughts and prayers of millions of his fans around the world and like them, I wish him a speedy and full recovery. Forza Felipe, siamo con te!

Until next time, drive safely everyone!

A horrendous crash for Massa and shock pole position for Alonso sums up Qualifying at the Hungaroring

It was a bright sunny Saturday afternoon around the Hungaroring circuit, just 12 miles north-east of the Hungarian capital Budapest. Being the last race before the mid-season break, everyone was looking forward to a cracker of a race weekend. But who knew it will end up like this?

Qualifying at the Hungaroring has always been very important. Overtaking is very difficult at this tight and twisty technical circuit, which in some ways resembles the Monte Carlo circuit without the barriers. So in order to be able to challenge for victory on Sunday, every driver ideally want to be on pole. Last year's race was defined by a one-two qualifying from the McLarens with Hamilton on pole. Although Ferrari's Felipe Massa had a brilliant start to overtake both the McLarens going into turn 1 and taking the race lead from there. Massa was then on course to a beautiful victory when, just 3 laps from the Chequered Flag, his Ferrari V8 engine let go. That was a very rare and a very unfortunate occurance because Ferrari engines are known to be one of the most reliable on the grid, and that incident is what probably cost Massa his world championship last season. So put it simply, the 28-year-old Brazilian never had the best of lucks on this track.

In qualifying, the first big shock was that both the BMWs of Heidfeld and Kubica were knocked out in Q1. Toro Rosso's debutant driver Jaime Alguersuari also failed to go through to Q2, which was not just because he was really slow but due to the fact that he had a hydraulics problem half way through the session, which meant that he had to settle for the last place on the grid. But given that this was his first ever qualifying session in a Formula 1 car, he did relatively well and never got into any trouble. He did a lot of laps in the practice sessions, more than a 100 altogether, to try and learn the circuit and the car. Before this weekend, the 19-year-old British Formula 3 champion has only done a couple of straight line tests in a Formula 1 car. The current ban on in-season testing means that teams can no longer try out new drivers on the test track first before making their grand prix debuts. The only testing that is allowed in the current regulations is a total of eight days of straight line tests, which makes it really hard for new drivers to come into Formula 1. But Toro Rosso say that they are not expecting too much from Alguersuari for the first few races, and just want to give him the time to learn the car properly and the tracks, before going for a full season next year.

Going into the second part of qualifying Q2, everyone was stunned to see BrawnGP's Rubens Barrichello only managing to get the 13th fastest lap on the board. That means for the first time this season, one of the Brawn-Mercedes cars has failed to make it into Q3. But while everyone was trying to find out what happened with Barrichello, Ferrari's Felipe Massa had a nasty accident when he went straight off the road and into the tyre barriers at turn 4. At first there was a lot of confusion as to why the accident happened, with many people thinking that he must have had a brake failure or something. While the on-site medical team attended Massa and the track marshals were trying to move his car from the crash site, the start of Q3 was delayed by Race Control.

At this time it was not quite clear to everyone as to what Massa's condition was, and he was taken to the circuit's medical centre immediately. Just as Q3 was getting on to a delayed start, Massa was then airlifted to the nearby AEK hospital in Budapest for further checks. What the doctors did confirm by then that he was conscious and talking, but that he had been struck on the helmet by a flying piece of debris which caused the accident.

That is when the video replays started to show that it was actually a piece of spring from the back of Rubens Barrichello's BrawnGP car that got separated from the car and was jumping along the track at a high speed just as Massa was on a flying lap not far behind. It then bounced off the edge of the F60's cockpit and hit at the top left corner of Massa's helmet. Such a blow at about a 125 miles per hour can be a very nasty one indeed, and even could have been fatal.

When Q3 ended in a load of confusion as the computerised timing system malfunctioned, none of the drivers knew what position they qualified in. It was only 9 drivers taking part in Q3 however as Massa did manage to get into Q3 before the crash, but was obviously out of the action for the remainder of the race weekend. When race control was finally able to confirm the times, Renault's Fernando Alonso shocked everyone by taking pole ahead of the Red Bull Racing duo of Vettel and Webber. McLaren-Mercedes also showed some good pace when Hamilton qualified on 4th and Kovalainen on 6th, split by the Williams of Nico Rosberg. The only Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen qualified on 7th ahead of championship leader Jenson Button. Williams' Kazuki Nakajima qualified on 9th while Ferrari's Felipe Massa was unable to take part in Q3. The Scuderia's team principal Stefano Domenicalli later confirmed that Massa will not be taking any more part in the racing this weekend.

Above all this though, the most important thing now was Massa's condition. Just last week, at a Formula 2 race at the Brands Hatch circuit in England, Henry Surtees - son of former Formula 1 World Champion John Surtees - died when a flying wheel hit him on his helmet during the race. Massa's accident happened in eerily similar circumstances, but this time everyone will be praying with their heart and soul for a more positive outcome.

Soon after he was taken to the hospital, the doctors performed an emergency operation on Massa and later told reporters that at one stage he was in a "life threatening condition" due to a fracture on his skull and concussion. The surgery, however, was successful and Massa was later put into induced coma to relieve some stress from his brain. He will be kept under intensive care for the next few days, but before that the doctors plan to bring him out of the coma sometime this morning and run a brain scan. The scan will then help them know the exact effects of the crash and what, if any, damage has it done to his brain. The key thing now is to ensure his well being and a full recovery. It does not matter when he comes back to racing, as some reports suggest that he could be out for the rest of the season, but all that matters now is that Massa recovers fully.

Latest press releases from Ferrari say that Massa is now in a serious, but "stable" condition. I personally, do not care about today's race anymore and I am hoping and praying with my heart and soul that he gets well soon. Whatever team you follow in Formula 1, even if it is our arch rivals McLaren, please join all of us today in wishing and praying for a full recovery for Felipe Massa.

You are a strong lad Felipe, and just know that we all love you more than ever before. All our thoughts and prayers go out to you and your family, your pregnant wife, your brother, your parents. I am sure that anyone who has ever followed any form of motorsport, will join me in saying that we are all behind you Felipe - you will get through this.

This is why I always say, drive safely everyone!

Chief Aerodynamicist Iley to leave Ferrari, Maranello now shifting its focus onto 2010

Italian publication Gazetta dello Sport reported this morning that 41-year-old Englishman John Iley, who has been chief of aerodynamics at Ferrari since November 2003, is to leave the team at the end of this year when his current contract expires.

After a very difficult start to the season for the Maranello outfit, which was mainly due to the poor aerodynamic properties of the F60 (Ferrari's 2009 F1 car), Iley came to an agreement with the team at the end of last week to leave his day to day job with immediate effect. His job mainly concentrated on the likes of windtunnel development, and Gazetta dello Sport is quoted as saying that a "serious" design flaw in the aerodynamics of the F60 has been identified as the root cause of the car's lack of performance.

During the weekend of the German Grand Prix, team principal Stefano Domenicalli was quoted in several media reports as saying that Ferrari are now starting to shift its focus on to the 2010 car, because we are now half way through the 2009 season and the championship is clearly out of reach. The best place Ferrari can contend for in the Constructors' Championship this year is 3rd place. So the bosses at Maranello want the team to start early development work on the 2010 car to ensure that Ferrari can start challenging for both the Drivers' and Constructors' titles again. In light of the poor aerodynamic properties of the F60, the decision was taken not to involve Iley in the development work of the 2010 car. Instead, chief designer Nikolas Tombazis will take on greater responsibility for the aerodynamic development of the 2010 championship contender.

What remains to be seen is if Ferrari can really bounce back to its winning days next year. The legendary Italian marque is clearly going through a transition period right now following the departure of Jean Todt, Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne and of course Michael Schumacher - all within the last two or three years. So it is no doubt that the Prancing Horse will eventually go back to its glory days of dominating both the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships throughout the season time after time, it is just a question of when rather than if.

The next round of the World Championship is this weekend at the Hungaroring circuit near Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix. Until then, drive safely!