When Michael Schumacher announced his second retirement in 2012, the decision was made by the racing icon alone. According to former Mercedes boss Norbert Haug, the German driver left the tracks for good and he departed from the Mercedes F1 team without any known issues.
Haug, who managed the Schumacher-led racing crew under Mercedes, dismissed the speculations that the legendary racer was forced out that led to his final exit from the game. There were suggestions Mercedes instigated the move to pave the way for Lewis Hamilton's entry to the team.
Yet the former racing boss made clear that Schumacher planned his retirement, which came two years after his surprise return to the circuit. The seven-time world champion first retired in 2006 after years of racing and victories with Ferrari but decided to take the driver's seat again in 2010.
Schumacher, however, failed to replicate the feats he achieved with Ferrari and decided to leave the tracks for good eight years ago. Haug said it was a planned exit for the multiple Formula One champion.
"Nobody sent him to retirement. That was a very clear process, controlled by Michael," Essentially Sports reported Haug as saying.
The executive also joined in the conversation that pits Schumacher against Hamilton. The latter has already won five world championships and will likely get his sixth soon. The British likewise equaled his rival's 91 career victories, and debates started raging on who is the superior between the two drivers.
Haug said the two F1 icons are equally good. He reckoned that if the two drivers had the chance of competing on the tracks, "they would probably only be separated by a few thousands of a second."
It might be that Schumacher and Hamilton are racing to win the honor of being regarded as the greatest F1 racer but Haug stressed that two drivers did engage in a friendly competition. Whatever rivalry that existed between them, Haug said the two sportsmen treated each other with "utmost respect."
Now the Formula One GOAT debate is only expected to continue but for Gerhard Berger, who raced against Schumacher and Hamilton, none of the two can be considered as the greatest seen in the F1 tracks. That honor belongs to Ayrton Sienna.
"He died young, but until then he had all the records in his hands. I think Ayrton would have become world champion many more times, and then the statistics would look different," Give Me Sport reported the Austrian as saying.
Berger noted though that if Hamilton will continue with his winning ways and it's likely the route he will be taking, then determining who is the better racers will become even more difficult in the next few years. But the former Ferrari driver is convinced that history will recognize Schumacher as the most successful driver of his time.
