Schumacher admits to neck strain amid GP2 test

Michael Schumacher late Wednesday admitted to having slightly sore neck muscles after his second consecutive day of testing at the wheel of a GP2 car.

While the three-day Jerez session is billed as a development test for the feeder series, a more accurate depiction of the event is as a “warm-up” for the seven time world champion’s 1 February run in the 2010 Mercedes GP car.

Despite more bad weather, the German – who has not raced in F1 since his championship challenge of 2006 – on Wednesday lapped Jerez another 53 times on slick tyres. “There is some minor muscular strain,” 41-year-old Schumacher is quoted as saying by Express, “but it’s completely normal.”

The former Ferrari driver had to call off his return to F1 in the middle of last season due to the effects of an earlier motorcycle testing crash.

He added: “There will be an acclimatisation phase when I sit in the real (F1) car at the beginning of February.  In the past I have never managed to be able to train the muscles in the neck so that you feel nothing at all.”

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