So Michael Schumacher is retiring from racing at the end of the 2012 F1 season. That’s it, or so I am told. He’s not going to Ferrari, Sauber, or indeed McLaren or Brabham or Tyrrell.
This time the seven times champion is really calling it a day after failing to win a single race during his three-year stint with the Mercedes (née Brawn) squad and seldom made it to the podium. But he seems to have genuinely enjoyed himself and, by all accounts, been a pleasure to work with if the comments of his team colleagues are anything to go by.
So what is Schumacher’s motor-racing legacy? Statistically he has been the ‘winningest' driver of all, which doesn’t necessarily mean he has been the best of all. Yet he might have been ranked so.
To be frank, there are those who believe him so, looking past his overtly aggressive driving style which made him such a target for the critics’ attention. I have to confess that the more I was exposed to Schuey, the more I liked him.
No matter how you liked to slice it, he brought a lot to the party, even if some of his supporters cast him in the role as the man you loved to hate.