Schumacher not happy to stay in F1 midfield

Michael Schumacher has set out his stall for a much more competitive car in 2011.

After three years of retirement, the 41-year-old struggled this year alongside his younger teammate Nico Rosberg, but neither were able to win with the W01.

Schumacher has a contract with Mercedes GP for 2011 and also 2012, but the German admitted to Swiss newspaper Blick that he needs to be pushing further up the pack as soon as possible.

“There is really only one goal, and that’s winning,” said the seven time world champion.

“The team won the world championship last year, so it’s pretty hard for everyone to have a season like we had.

“Of course from my side it’s important to identify the weaknesses, but I didn’t have to put my finger into the wound to wake people up — that is done automatically with the results.

“So we are extremely motivated to come into a position to be able to win.  This is the basic requirement; I said already at the start that I don’t want to drive around in the middle (of the field),” insisted Schumacher.

Although also not happy with 2010, arguably the only winner at Mercedes this year was Rosberg, who by beating Schumacher showed his potential for wins and titles.

“He (Schumacher) is a very high profile teammate and I’m obviously happy to have been ahead of him,” the 25-year-old is quoted by Auto Bild.

Like Schumacher, Rosberg is hopeful of a better 2011 but acknowledges the scale of the task.

“Sooner or later it will happen, but we can’t forget that the gap we have to the front is quite big,” he insisted.

Bernie Ecclestone observes that Mercedes’ results in 2010 make it difficult to assess the performances of both Schumacher and Rosberg.

“Put him (Schumacher) in one of the Red Bulls and then see what happens,” the F1 chief executive wrote in the foreword to the Official Formula 1 Season Review 2010.

“But then we don’t know how good Rosberg is.  Maybe Rosberg in a Red Bull would beat all of them,” mused Ecclestone.

 © RIF | GMM