Tuesday 15th DecemberFERRARI PREPARED TO RELEASE SCHUEY
Di Montezemolo says Schuey could go and race for Mercedes if he wished



Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has said he would release Michael Schumacher from his Ferrari contract if the German race ace wanted to drive for the Mercedes GP team.

Speaking to the Reuters news agency, di Montezemolo also added that, although he had not yet discussed the issue with Schumacher, his contract with Ferrari was "not binding".

The Ferrari boss's comments came after reports in the German media over the weekend suggested Schuey could be heading to Mercedes in a one-year, £3 million deal.

Despite the fact that Schumacher signed a three-year deal this summer to remain an ambassador for the brand, di Montezemolo remained sanguine about the possibility of Schuey's defection to Mercedes.

"It's clear that if he decides to take another road our agreement will no longer be valid, that is logical," he said. "You can't work with a competitor and with us at the same time. I still haven't spoken to him about it. He is only a dear friend, not a team member. He is a consultant for our road cars."


Hope he does come back not bothered if he does nowt just be good to see if he can still cut

[Edited on 12/16/2009 by DRC INDY 7]

I don't understand your point?

That statement seems pretty warm to me... calls him a 'Dear Friend' and makes no fuss about a possible return to F1 for a non-Fezza team.

Luca is saying he understands a proud German would want to drive a German car and Ferrari wouldn't hold Schuey to the last day of his contract as Brawn did with Button.

Luca always behaves like the well bred gentleman he is.

The fact that luca says he is a dear friend and not a team member

Looks like Luca di Montego would be quite happy for Scummy to join Mercedes.
I can't see him being fully competetive but who knows? It'll add to the interest anyway cos I think Hamilton will just runaway with it.

But he's not a team member though... so to call him a Dear Friend is surely a term of endearment???

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Originally posted by scootz
But he's not a team member though... so to call him a Dear Friend is surely a term of endearment???

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Be really great to see him back in F1 to see how he compares against lewis, button etc.

NOT that i am shuey fan at ALL.
I remember the win at all costs shumacher racing against damon hill.........................that made him the enemy to me.

would be interesting and mix things up a bit

It will be a sad day if that cheating bast*rd ever returns to F1.

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It will be a sad day if that cheating bast*rd ever returns to F1.

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They may not be that sad to no longer have his 'help'. I've read a few things saying a few dodgy decisions have been made by him on the pit wall (the Massa tyre incident for example) and that's probably why he's mostly been helping out with the road car division recently.

Also, there's clearly going to be issues between Massa and Alonso over who's number one. Ferrari will presumably favour Alonso slightly as he's the better driver but Massa and Schumy are great friends so it would be Alonso vs Massa/Schumy which is clearly going to help Massa and prevent Ferrari from side-lining Massa so easily!

There will be less internal Alonson/Massa strife with Schumy gone!

Cheers,
James