Petronas???

Asia and Mercedes????

Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas has confirmed a long-term title sponsorship deal with the Mercedes Grand Prix team, just says after saying that it would not be involved in Formula 1 as a team sponsor next season.

Having been associated for over a decade with the Sauber - later BMW - team, Petronas explained last week that it would not continue in F1 as a team sponsor next year but remain only as title sponsor for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

However, Monday's news marks the first large outside funding for the Brackley-based Mercedes, with a concept livery released by the team showing Petronas branding on the front and rear wings of the car which, due to their sizes and visibility to onlookers, are two of the more expensive areas for logo-showing on an F1 car.

"Everyone at Mercedes GP is delighted to confirm our long-term agreement with Petronas and we look forward to working closely with our new partner in the future," commented Mercedes Team Principal Ross Brawn. "The collaboration of the premium automotive brand Mercedes-Benz and a company as prestigious as Petronas gives our team a fantastic base from which to achieve our ambitions of competing at the top level of Formula 1 and building on the success of 2009, which saw the team achieve the Constructors' and Drivers' Championships.

"Our plans for the new season are progressing well, as is the development of our 2010 challenger, and we look forward to seeing the car run in the new silver arrows and Petronas livery at the Valencia test in February."

The news is likely to come as a particular blow to the newly-formed Lotus team which, under Malaysian ownership and soon to be based at Malaysia's Sepang circuit, was always tipped as the most likely candidate for a Petronas contract.

GPUpdate.net

And Alons held him at Imola the previous year, despite MS enjoying a massive advantage over him. So what?

These terms are implicit in statements by you and the other cult followers. The example of his race - oh, how great he did... as if the car had nothing to do with his solid drive? The unreasonable expectations heaped on him this summer were similarly hyped - he was supposed to thrash Kimi and pick up wins, in a car which he found difficult to drive and apparently cancelled his comeback because of not wanting to look silly. Like Badoer and Fisi who were brave enough to take the challenge but were crucified shortly after their first laps.

In 2005 Schumy started from 14th on grid and ended just behind Alonso
In 2006 Schumy was second behind Alonso and he jumped him in the pits with a massive In lap and overtook Alonso to 1st

thats the difference!

But we can argue the WAY he achieved any-thing of that what your talking about...... Totally disrespectfull and shamefull for the sport in times. He raped F1 in it's pooper more than once, he showed that F1 doesn't have to be a sport, but a political thing charged with economics and mucho's money. Being the winner doesn't mean your the best, it only means your the one where everybody else finished behind, no matter if this car/driver were the best. Being 1st doesn't mean your the best, especially when your name is Schumacher and you have had to win half of your wins in your carreer by teammates what had to move over, (being 2nd and still win, oooh wow, what an achievement heh?)

People seem to love to close they're eyes and dream how much he won.... over and over again.... and none of them remembers the swerve's and rules-changes of the regulations he needed to achieve those wins.

Schumacher :

He's going to spoil the treu-honest racing part of the Formula One again, wanna bet?

You're right, honesty like Spygate, Crashgate and the double diffuser debacle must be preserved! Formula One has been nothing but spotless since Schumacher left.

Heaven forbird someone makes this god damn procession fest interesting from time to time.

From Sniff Petrol.

Excellent as usual!

Please don't discuss other posters.

Actually no, these terms are only implicit in your excessively paranoid mind.

How 'bout not putting implicit words into anyone's mouth just for the sake of fighting against those [actually never told] words and proving how totally false they are [were, if were ever told].




Uhm, no, that's just your made up bullshit actually. An utter and complete lie of yours if You like.

For starters, MS couldn't find difficult to drive the F2009 as he was never allowed drive it (though a request's been made [and declined by redbull] by Domenicalli for that).




Well, maybe if MS really is a superhuman and/or an ueberman as You state, he could've actually found the F2009 to be difficult to drive without even driving the damn'd car.

Who cares. What is he going to do nowadays on the pitwall at Ferrari doing nothing, because he can't make the car quicker, unlike some people think he can do. He's no Rory Byrne

Let him race and have fun. If Brawn can give him a good car in 2010, he might up ending winning a few races

haha what utter lunacy!

at a time when the biggest manufacturers pull out of F1, mercedes made a huge commitment/investment, It's kinda obvious that brawn won't lack of funds



nothing much to say here, some haters are simply loosing it

to winning few races he must beat Rosberg (who was cheated of first victoy in 2008) at first ..but this will be a big problem
I seem him in reality in de middle of rosberg and nakajima performance in 2009

Just because Mercedes has bought the team, don't think they are swimming in money. Mercedes doesn't want to spend alot of money on it. Daimler is also facing difficulties with the recession.

that proves my point, they must be committed if they spend loads of millions to buy a team in recession/depression

I've asked this before, but Speed TV insinuated a few months back that Schumacher's relationship with his wife was not in great shape at the moment.

I've never seen this repeated anywhere else, but is this whole return-to-racing thing putting pressure on his marriage.

I don't know.
I've read somewhere else this past week that his wife gave a green light for him to return to race.

Surely coming back and racing full season long, missing the Sunday lunch every two weeks won't help. Corinna shuld be delighted though that Michael stops riding the bikes finally...

Yas Marina not cfonfirming Schu comeback test

it's supposed be a secret test, so..

I've always found it quite curious that when Schumi retired from racing Corinna said she was just happy to have him back in one piece...

...and a few months later he embarked on a hobby many times more dangerous than F1, especially as he is quite a lot less skillful on a bike than he is in a car.

Can't wait to see him troll around the midfield. He will end his F1 career with a whimper. If history is any indication the cream will rise to the top this season - the better teams with better resources will have learned their 2009 lessons and improved their cars. Teams like Brawn/Red Bull/ etc had their shot last year - it will be a ferrari mclaren fest again in 2010.

To me it looks like they are OK:

Perhaps she should consult a steward?

When were those taken Galko, quite recently at a karting event I'd guess?

It was a weird line on Speed, but came from Adam Cooper who is normally incredibly reliable.

These were taken in August when he was preparing for his comeback at Ferrari. Corinna didn't mind then, it seems, so she won't mind now, IMO.

I remember you mentioned this earlier, but even if Cooper is reliable in F1 matters, how would he know about Schumacher's marriage? If there would be anything in that rumour, I suppose it would be all over in the German tabloids. But it's not.

Yeah, you're right about that.

Bild would go mental!

Michael 'Schwarzenegger' Schumacher !

how do you post a ''link'' guys ??

yeah I tried posting this on my previous post but it failed :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/dec/2...her-mercedes-f1

I call it :'' Michael 'Schwarzenegger' Schumacher

ah great it works ! ..... My god, Schumacher has got to be the most buffed out 41 year old soon-to-be F1 driver in history

bring on 2010 baby !

Go Michael Schumacher ! Go Mercedes-Petrona GP !

For sure; Mercedes if fighting supremacy in lux market in China, but first they have to dethrone BMW

Not really. Shumi was extraordinary error-prone during his last years, and someone dared me a few years ago to find a dozen crucial mistakes Shumi made, and I came up with this list, which was made in May 2006:

Australia 2006: Put the car in the wall and retired.
China 2005: Collided with Albers on the formation lap and had to start the race from the pit.
China 2005: Spun in the race and retired.
Turkey 2005: Spun in qualifying and had to start the race from the back of the field.
Monaco 2005: Hit Coulthard from behind.
San Marino 2005: Went off-track in qualifying and had to start the race from 14th place.
Australia 2005: Collided with Heidfeld and retired.
Brazil 2004: Crashed in practice which resulted in an engine change.
Brazil 2004: Spun in the race and lost several positions.
China 2004: Spun in qualifying and had to start the race from the pit.
Italy 2004: Spun in the race on the first lap.
Monaco 2004: Collided with Montoya in the tunnel following a safety car.

If you call that flabby belly buffed and fit, I must be a Mr. Olympia contender

He didn't collide or made errors. It was his car that spun out or other drivers that torpedoed him.

Hardly the best informed site:

I agree that he was a bit more error-prone during his last years but those mistakes listed from 04 are a bit irrelevant, maybe bar Monaco.
He had already won the title before Monza and started relaxing and making more mistakes.

How exactly would be 2004 Monaco Schumacher's fault if it was caused by that utter dickhead Montoya.

yeah well I don't know too many 41 years olds who got MS's body , belly flab or not !

I mean Ahhhnold the Terminator was always in top shape well into his 50's but the human body ages never the less like it or not ... A 46 year old super top shape boby builder like Schwarzenegger CANT have the same body as he did at 30 years old .


peace

LL Cool J, born 1968 http://content9.flixster.com/photo/31/68/77/3168779_tml.jpg
Some of the MS fans seem to have a hard on over his body which is nothing spectacular. Yet another myth in the list of slavish fawnings towards the Great One.

Please enlighten us, how and when exactly did Schumacher find the F2009 difficult to drive. I'm so eager to know.

What's so stupid about it. It took me a few years until I figured that guy out, but once I learned that he kicked three colours (RGB presumably) out of his telly following the seconds after the Brazil GP 2008 I knew right away that Luca is a guy I should like.

We're talking about relentless passion here, bottomless love for Ferrari and everything that surrounds it, and like it or not, Shumi is part of that, so no bloody wonder Luca reacts this way, and the only way we can ever find out is because he says it out loud. He admits his disappointment no matter how it would look, because that's the way he is. You just got to love that. 100 per cent bang in, all the time, and I'm just like that myself.

Like I said, belly flab or not , Schumacher at age 41 looks more in shape than most F1 drivers at 20 years old !

I am only stating the obvious

peace

I knew someone would pick up on that. What you may or may not know is that it was actually Shumi that careered straight into Montoya, the latter who was trying in-vane to avoid the wiggling Prince of Kerpen and his brake-testing in the tunnel. The contact was lateral, yes, lateral and Montoya could go no more to the right, he was already brushing the wall and Shumi steered straight into him.

But it doesn't matter whose fault it was, even if we say it was 50-50, which it wasn't but if it was, Shumi still made a mistake. Playing mind-games with Montoya, at that particular moment, when your name is Shumi, isn't a very good idea.

Why? People support more than one team all the time, but perhaps you're different. So why support Mercedes at all? If I managed to support Williams and Montoya at the same time in 2005 I bet you can support Ferrari and Shumi next year too.

Who else is on your long list of older buff men... not that there's anything wrong with that.

I am not sure what you know, but since this accident occurred in total seclusion of the tunnel, I am therefore somewhat doubtful, that you have all facts to make here definite statements. I went over this with various people repeatedly, and all what we have is word against word, and I am last one to trust JPM on anything. There was not even simple investigation done, that’s how badly Max run races with his people.

From fuzzy and rather sketchy camera views I would like to ask today Mr. JPM what is the truth and his share in that accident, because things do not happen in vacuum. Today I also remember that JT called press imbeciles for their open pleasure derived from that crash, hating Schumacher to their gills, when his damaged car emerged from the tunnel.

Point is, JPM made some statements, blaming Schumacher, but fact is, he had followed him, and there is no way he can be absolved from all responsibilities for safety.

The weakness that broke Michael's dream of 18 consecutive victories this year was Michael's own arrogance. It was a lesson he did not learn at Monza in 2000 when he caused some frightening moments when playing about behind the Safety Car, warming up his brakes. On that occasion it was others who suffered and after the race Michael admitted his mistake.

"After the Safety Car switches off the lights, the leader dictates the gap of the Safety Car," he said. I was accelerating/braking, accelerating/braking, to warm up my brakes. I think I made a mistake the way I did it, because when I started braking again all the cars behind started braking, but probably saw it a little bit too late. I'm sorry for whoever suffered from that. I thought that everybody knew what I was going to do."

Fast forward nearly four years and he same thing happens again and this time the response is different: hours after the race the Ferrari team issued a press statement which quoted Schumacher was saying that "the situation is that the race leader was knocked out of the race after being hit by a backmarker."

These were not the words of a great champion. Nor was it right that the team was up in Race Control arguing that Juan Pablo Montoya was a dirty driver and had taken Michael out of the race deliberately. Where was Montoya supposed to go when Michael caught him out accelerating and braking in the tunnel? Montoya tried to avoid the Ferrari by diving for the right side of the track where there was (initially at least) a gap. Montoya was trying to stop but there was just no time and he ended up with the right hand wheels of the Williams rubbing down the barrier and his left front wheel rubbing along the sidepod of the Ferrari. The Williams slowed but as it did so the left front wheel tagged Michael's right rear and the Ferrari was turned sharply to the left and smacked into the barriers.

http://grandprix.com/gpe/rr719.html