According to Mercedes chief Norbert Haug, a line should now be drawn underneath the recent criticisms of Michael Schumacher.<\/p>\n
With his detractors already questioning his competitive struggles in 2010, the seven time world champion sparked a new line of attack with his aggressive driving against former Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello in Hungary.<\/p>\n
The condemnation was near-universal and stinging, and preceded a rare show of contrition by the 41-year-old German.<\/p>\n
“Michael has apologised and accepted his penalty,” competition boss Haug is quoted by Der Tagespiegel.<\/p>\n
“It should now be accepted from everyone else and a final line be drawn under this topic,” added the German.<\/p>\n
But for some, drawing that line will not come until the safety implications of the move are well documented.<\/p>\n
“He’s a seven time world champion, he knew exactly what he was doing, he did it absolutely deliberately,” said Alex Wurz.\u00a0 “A collision could have been fatal.”<\/p>\n
Joan Villadelprat, writing in El Pais newspaper, agreed: “Obviously he cannot argue from the angle of inexperience.\u00a0 What he did to Barrichello is intolerable.<\/p>\n
“If it had gone wrong, the crash would have been at 300kph and could have ended in tragedy,” added the Epsilon Euskadi boss.<\/p>\n
And Ferrari test driver Marc Gene wrote in El Mundo newspaper: “I still have shivers after watching that move.\u00a0 It was unnecessary and very dangerous.”<\/p>\n
Triple world champion and F1 safety pioneer Jackie Stewart said: “It was one of the most blatant abuses of another driver that I have seen.<\/p>\n
“It is a terrible example from a man who has seven world titles — bully-boy tactics,” he is quoted by the Sun newspaper.<\/p>\n
Another former driver John Watson added: “He’s a proud man and didn’t want to be overtaken but he reverted to an ugly animal instinct.”<\/p>\n
Sebastien Buemi was unhappy with Schumacher after Hungary for a different reason.<\/p>\n
“At the start he pushed me to the grass,” Blick newspaper quotes the 21-year-old as saying.\u00a0 “I had to brake or I would have hit him.\u00a0 I am disappointed; I would have expected more from him.”<\/p>\n
UK bookmaker William Hill is taking bets that the German will retire before the Belgian grand prix (33\/1), and that he will return to retirement at the end of the season (evens).<\/p>\n
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