Schumacher may never wake up from Coma

 

.LONDON: Formula One legend Michael Schumacher, who has been in a medically-induced following a skiing accident in late December, may reportedly never regain consciousness.

Michael Schumacher's injury hospital report

Michael Schumacher 'stable' in hospital

Michael Schumacher, the most successful Formula 1 driver in history, remains in a stable but critical condition in hospital, his manager has said.

Michael Schumacher in 'coma'

 Michael Schumacher critical after skiing

 
Michael Schumacher, seven-time Formula 1 world champion, is in a critical condition after a skiing accident, says the French hospital treating him.
The 44-year-old German suffered serious brain trauma, was in a coma on arrival and underwent a brain operation.

Michael Schumacher injured in ski accident

PARIS: Retired seven-times Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher suffered a serious head injury while skiing in the French Alps resort of Meribel, French media reported on Sunday.

"He has been taken to a hospital in Grenoble," the resort director, Christophe Gernignon-Lecomte, told radio RMC.

"I can't tell how serious his injury is," he added.

The 44-year-old German quit Formula One last year after a three-year comeback with Mercedes following his earlier retirement from Ferrari

Nico Rosberg suffers tyre failure at 200mph

Nico Rosberg suffers tyre failure in Bahrain Pirelli test

Nico Rosberg suffered a 200mph tyre failure on Thursday at a private Pirelli test in Bahrain.

The German's Mercedes outfit are among four teams helping F1 supplier Pirelli with development work in the Gulf state this week.
Rosberg tweeted: "Just spun at full speed 320km/h on Bahrain straight because my tyre blew up without warning."

The tweet was deleted within a few minutes of being posted.

A Pirelli statement said: "The tyre tests in Bahrain regarded a number of prototypes, which were completely innovative in terms of structure and compounds, with the aim of developing the most suitable solutions for the next season.
"This morning Nico Rosberg's Mercedes was fitted with one of these prototypes, a tyre which had only been tested in the laboratory and which will not be proposed again.
"Thus, the safety of the tyres which will be supplied for the next championship is not in question.
"The accident which happened to Rosberg's car is being investigated and the findings will be communicated to the FIA and the teams."
Damage to Rosberg's Mercedes caused by the spin and the tyre failure meant the team had to end its programme for the week.
Red Bull, Ferrari and Toro Rosso are also taking part in the test,  which started on Tuesday and ends on Thursday.
Pirelli asked for the test because it felt it was important to do more development work on its tyres ahead of the 2014 season, when major rules changes come into force.
It is concerned that the greater torque of the new turbo engines will put more demands on the tyres and it wants to avoid the problems it suffered this year.
Pirelli needed to change the design of its tyres in the middle of the season following a series of dramatic failures, culminating in six issues at the British Grand Prix.

The FIA, which governs the sport, has an observer at the test and will expect an explanation for the tyre failure.
It was understood Pirelli would no longer conduct safety testing on the track and that the testing would be done on a rig, before durability and performance testing was conducted on a circuit.
Pirelli has constantly complained, since it became F1's tyre supplier in 2011, that the severe limitations on testing in the sport were making its job impossible.
As a result, F1 has introduced four in-season tests in 2014 to help Pirelli develop its tyres.
Pirelli has a contract with F1 for the next five years but the FIA has not yet made clear its status as the sport's official tyre supplier in 2014.
Earlier on Thursday, a Pirelli spokesman said: "The test in Bahrain is a private tyre test, so most data generated from it is confidential. However, incidents can happen, this is what testing is for. Our testing programme will continue as planned."

Sebastian Vettel doesn't get blues from boos

Singapore:  Runaway Formula One leader Sebastian Vettel on Thursday said he'd had to "learn to deal" with booing after fans started to get tired of his incessant winning.

The 26-year-old German, who has won the last three world titles and is on course for a fourth, was greeted by the latest chorus of boos on the podium at this month's Italian Grand Prix.

But Vettel, speaking ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix -- where he has won the last two races -- said fans should remember that Red Bull work hard for their success.

"I think you learn to deal with a situation. Obviously if you look at the fan base we have it's much bigger than two or three years ago so there's plenty of positives as well," he said.

"For sure there's some people that are tired of Red Bull winning, but we're not and we know there's no guarantee. We arrive here, we know we have a strong package but we have to work hard to be at the front.

"From the outside or with hindsight you can say 'ah yeah, they finished on the podium so many times, they won so many races'. But every race was a new challenge, that's the most important bit, that you remember how hard work it was to get there in the first place."

Vettel has won three of the last four races to take this year's championship by the scruff of the neck. He could potentially claim the title as early as next month in Japan.

But his success, reminiscent of Michael Schumacher's five titles in a row from 2000 to 2004, has begun to chafe with some fans, with "Anyone but Vettel" accounts appearing on Facebook and Twitter.

Ferrari say Kimi Raikkonen not an anti-Alonso choice

Ferrari say their decision to bring 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen back to the Formula One team next season will help and not hurt Fernando Alonso's chances.

"For anyone thinking that the choice of Kimi is somehow an anti-Alonso choice, I can put their minds at rest," team principal Stefano Domenicali told the team website (www.ferrari.com).

"At Ferrari, everyone knows the interests of the team come first and only then those of the individual. Fernando is a key asset for this team and he will be for a long time.

"I'm sure he is the first to be happy with a choice made to strengthen the group, because he is too intelligent not to realise that a stronger team can only be an advantage," added the Italian.

Double world champion Alonso had made clear before the appointment that he would be happy to continue with under-performing Brazilian Felipe Massa as his teammate.

In comments on Wednesday, after the announcement from Maranello, the Spaniard paid tribute to the departing Massa and welcomed his new "travelling companion" without mentioning the Finn by name.

Domenicali said the driver combination of Alonso and Raikkonen was the best Ferrari could have and both would start on equal terms.

The Italian also addressed concerns about Raikkonen's ability to work as a team player and in helping to develop and improve the car technically.

"Everyone has their own ways and you can't expect a Finn to start telling jokes in Italian or playing the clown," he said. "Honestly, I think the combination of Fernando's expressive and passionate Latin character and the cool style, to call it that, of someone like Kimi, seems to appeal too many.

"As for the technical side of things, not only do we know full well how much Kimi can contribute at an important time like this...but we also have first hand information from James Allison, as to how much the Finn has also progressed in this area over the past two years."

Allison was with Raikkonen at Lotus, where he was technical director, before starting work with Ferrari this month.

Kimi Raikkonen returns to Ferrari

LONDON: Finland's Kimi Raikkonen will race for Ferrari next season in a two-year deal that takes the 2007 world champion back to the glamour team he left in 2009 and creates the strongest pairing in Formula One.

Ferrari said in a statement on Wednesday that the 33-year-old 'Iceman', currently driving for Lotus, will replace Brazilian Felipe Massa alongside Spain's double world champion Fernando Alonso.

"Scuderia Ferrari announces that it has reached an agreement with Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn will join Fernando Alonso in the driver line-up for the next two racing seasons," the statement said.

There were no quotes from the famously taciturn Finn, whose future team mate had made clear he would have been happy to continue with Massa. The Spaniard has a contract to the end of 2016.

Massa, championship runner-up to Lewis Hamilton in 2008, had already announced on social media that he would not be driving for the Italian team in 2014.

Ferrari last had two world champions in their lineup in 1953, when Italians Alberto Ascari and Giuseppe Farina were together.

Raikkonen and Alonso should be a force to be reckoned with, although there could also be fireworks.

In contrast, other top teams have opted to pair a champion with a driver whose resume is less glittering.

Red Bull have a new face in Australian Daniel Ricciardo, who has yet to stand on the podium, as team mate to triple champion Sebastian Vettel while 2009 winner Jenson Button has Sergio Perez alongside him at McLaren but the Mexican is not yet a race winner.

Germany's Nico Rosberg, who partners Hamilton at Mercedes, has been on the top step of the podium twice this season but only three times in his career.

TWO ROOSTERS

Since the arrival in 1996 of Michael Schumacher, the seven times-world champion Raikkonen replaced at the end of 2006, Ferrari have preferred to have one clearly dominant driver in their lineup.

That was not the case in 2008, when Massa almost won the title, but Alonso wasted no time in stamping his authority on the team when he replaced Raikkonen.

Massa started 2010 still recovering from near-fatal head injuries sustained at the previous year's Hungarian Grand Prix and the Brazilian never regained his previous level of performance.

Ferrari chairman Luca Di Montezemolo has said in the past, reacting to speculation that Vettel could partner Alonso, that he did not want "two roosters in the same henhouse".

Ferrari decided, however, that Raikkonen - who won this year's Australian season-opener and recently ended a record 27 race scoring run - was a better bet than Massa.

Red Bull and Vettel have a firm grip on both of this year's championships and Ferrari are already focusing much of their attention on next year, when the rules go through significant change and a new V6 power unit is introduced.

The team, winners of a record 16 constructors' and 15 drivers' championships but without a title since 2008, are not in the habit of re-signing their ex-drivers although Austrian Gerhard Berger had two separate three-year stints at Maranello in the 1980s and 1990s.

Raikkonen should have no problems fitting in at Maranello, with Pat Fry and James Allison - his former technical directors at McLaren and Lotus (formerly Renault) - now with Ferrari. Both men also worked with Alonso, who won his two titles with Renault, at those teams.

The Finn won nine races for Ferrari between 2007 and 2009.

Felipe Massa announced that he will no longer be driving for Ferrari next year.

Felipe Massa announced via Twitter on Tuesday that he will no longer be driving for Ferrari next year.

Ferrari's last world champion, Kimi Raikkonen, is believed to have been lined up to replace the Brazilian.

"From 2014 I will no longer be driving for Ferrari," said Massa on his official @Felipe1Massa account.

"I would like to thank the team for all the victories and incredible moments experienced together.

"Thank you also to my wife and all of my family, to my fans and all my Sponsors. From each one of you I have always received a great support!

"Right now I want to push as hard as possible with Ferrari for the remaining 7 races."

Talk in the paddock has been raging for several weeks about who will be Ferrari's second driver next year alongside two-time former world champion with Renault, Fernando Alonso.

Raikkonen spent three years with Ferrari from 2007-2009, winning the world title in his first season.

He left F1 in 2009, moving to the World Rally Championship, and was replaced at the Italian team by Alonso.

After a stint in NASCAR he returned to F1 with Lotus in 2012. Massa says he wants to remain in F1 but has yet to find a drive for 2014.

"For next year, I want to find a team that can give me a competitive car to win many more races and challenge for the Championship which remains my greatest objective!" he said.

Massa has spent eight years with Ferrari since joining from Sauber in 2006.

In 2008 he came within a couple of bends of winning the world title, only for Lewis Hamilton to snatch it by overtaking Timo Glock two corners from the end of the Brazilian Grand Prix.

It was Massa's best season in a Ferrari and the only time he challenged for the title, although he finished third in 2006 and fourth in 2007.

His 2009 season ended in July's Hungarian Grand Prix when he suffered a horror injury in a crash in qualifying after being hit on the head by a suspension spring that had fallen from compatriot Rubens Barrichello's Brawn.

Massa suffered a head injury that was initially thought to be life-threatening but he recovered and was driving for Ferrari again in 2010.

He has won 11 races in his Ferrari career, the last coming in 2008.