Autoblog

As was reported earlier, Michael Schumacher made an appearance racing on a Honda at the Oschersleben circuit of the German Superbike Championship last weekend. On the surface, his twenty-eighth place finish seems rather disappointing, but upon further examination, it was a pretty good weekend overall for the ex-Formula 1 champ. Technical issues kept Schumacher from starting well, with only two racers behind him at position thirty-seven on the grid. Finishing all the way up to number 28 in the first race is a rather good outing considering the competition he was up against. In race two, Schumacher charged his way to position 21 before crashing out.

Despite the accident, Schumacher seems to have enjoyed his time on the track, saying, "I am a racer. I find motorcycles such a lot of fun, but I do not have any plans to enter a race series properly. Perhaps I will race from time to time, but always as a guest runner and without ambitions for another career." Good for you, Schumie. Thanks for the tip, Erik!

[Source: F1-Live]

Seven-time Formula 1 racing champion Michael Schumacher will be racing this weekend on a Honda CBR1000RR at the IDM International German Motorbike Championship. There are rumors that he'll be racing under a false name, Marcel Niederhausen. Now that the cat is officially out of the bag, so to speak, he may as well skip the alias. Schumacher will race alongside current champion Martin Bauer for Holzhauer Racing.

With this announcement, all of the previous events which Schumacher took part in start to make more sense. Superbike racing is very hotly contested, and the bikes feature nearly two-hundred horsepower in race trim. Therefore, it would have been an exceedingly bad idea to race in this series without a few warm-up runs. According to event organizers, the thirty-seven year old Schumacher has been testing for the last few weeks with members of his new team and "he surprised many experts with fast times." We can only hope that our "retirements" will be so enjoyable.

[Source: Motorcycle News]

Click on the image for more high-res shots of the Schuberth Race helmet

Seven-time Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher doesn't seem to have any desire to take it easy after retiring from the pinnacle of motorsports. It turns out that his four-wheeled racing excellence has translated rather nicely to two, and it sounds as if the ex-champ's perfectionist attitude continues on unabated as he now begins designing helmets for Schuberth. The German producer of brain buckets had previously supplied the headgear for Schumacher as he raced in F1 and currently provides the units for Ralf Schumacher, Nick Heidfeld, Felipe Massa, Kimi Räikkönen and Mark Webber. Though no details regarding pricing or availability have been released as of yet, Schuberth assures that its new 'Schuberth Race' helmet is "an extremely lightweight and aerodynamic helmet, filled with numerous technical and safety innovations." From the looks of things, the helmet, with its orange and grey highlights, would be perfect mounted atop a KTM rider's head.


[Source: Schuberth]

2007 was a year of major transition for the Ferrari Formula One team. Seven-time champion Michael Schumacher had finally retired, long-time Technical Director Ross Brawn was on a sabbatical and team boss Jean Todt was looking to relinquish his control of the team as well. Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo promoted Todt to CEO of the entire Ferrari operation in 2006. Todt held extensive discussions with Brawn about taking over his job, but Brawn ultimately decided to move over to Honda taking the same job there. Todt also tried to get Schumacher to take on the new role but Michael decided he preferred not to be tied down in that way. After all those years of driving, the freedom was probably pretty appealing to him. Ultimately the job went to a veteran Ferrari administrator Sporting Director Stefano Domenicali.

[Source: AutoSport via Winding Road]