Mark Webber thinks Michael Schumacher’s dominant days are behind him, telling the Mirror newspaper that the former seven-time champ will be competitive but won’t beat his teammate, Nico Rosberg.
Way to paint a target on you before your home race this weekend, Mark.
While Webber said he expects Schumacher to get better and faster as the season goes on, he isn’t expecting any dominant Schumacher wins.
“It depends what people mean by competitive because Michael was competitive in Bahrain.
“Is him winning by 60 seconds like he used to in the past, competitive? Winning by those sorts of margins will be tough for Schumacher this season but, yes, he will be competitive.
“Whether he can be as dominant as he was in the past will be another subject.
“I wouldn’t expect him to beat Nico – I expect it to be close. Rosberg is competitive and I would say Schumacher is too.”
I’d say his quote isn’t’t too damning until Webber tosses Rosberg into the mix. Picking Schumacher to finish second on his own team?
I’d expect a frosty reception for Mercedes’ more experienced German driver this weekend.
Is anyone sensing some kind of mind games here or is there some nuance I’m missing? Or is this just Webber being Webber?
[Of course, I’ll also note that in this same story the Mirror reports that Red Bull “revealed” that Sebastian Vettel was running out of gas and Bahrain, which is what forced him to slow down. I haven’t seen one word from Red Bull along those lines, and there are none in the story — just Ron Dennis suggesting that low fuel was the cause of Vettel’s troubles. So keep that in mind, too.]
