When Michael Schumacher made his comeback to Formula 1 in 2010, it came after spending the last four years on the sidelines.
There were questions over whether he had what it takes still to compete in F1, especially given a new generation of talent had come through the ranks in Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, while ex-rivals Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen had both won titles.
Driving for Mercedes, which was effectively the team that had won the title in 2009, Schumacher was keen to add to his records. Schumacher’s move to Mercedes was even nearly stopped by Nick Heidfeld, having come close to signing with the German outfit.
Schumacher is no doubt one of the all-time greats and while his tenure at Mercedes ultimately turned out to be unsuccessful, there were factors that played into that comeback according to journalist Mark Hughes speaking on The Race podcast.
Mercedes did not suit Michael Schumacher’s driving style
Mercedes joined off the back of Brawn GP’s success, however, the car was hardly developed throughout 2009 due to their lack of financial resources.
It meant they started 2010 on the back foot, with their car no match for the Red Bull, Ferrari, or McLaren that season. Schumacher and Nico Rosberg were a strong enough driver pairing to finish regularly in the top 10 places, but the seven-time world champion could not exploit the best of his driving style.
“The Mercedes, the way that car was balanced, it was never a car where he [Schumacher] could take a huge amount of speed and turn in slightly early, come off the brakes, then have the whole car drifting for the rest of the turn. That was how he drove and it wasn’t possible to drive the Mercedes in that way.
“That’s one of the fundamental things that is misunderstood broadly, about how a great driver gets his speed in a car that works for him. That doesn’t mean they will have that advantage over someone if you put them both in a car which has a relatively low [performance] ceiling. It imposes a false ceiling on them both if that driver can’t use his extreme style to exploit that advantage.”
Michael Schumacher only achieves podium on F1 comeback
Despite coming close to wins in 2012, Schumacher only managed a best finishing position of third at the 2012 European Grand Prix.
He initially qualified on pole for the Monaco GP in the same year, but he needed to serve an outstanding grid penalty from the previous race having caused a collision with Bruno Senna.
| Year | Points | Finishing Position | Podiums |
| 2010 | 72 | 9th | 0 |
| 2011 | 76 | 8th | 0 |
| 2012 | 49 | 13th | 1 |
His shortlived comeback across three seasons saw him finish as high as 8th in the Drivers’ Championship in 2011, while he dropped to 13th in his final season.
Much of the 2012 season was spent on the sidelines having retired from races due to multiple issues, while the Asia and US flyaway races only saw him finish once in the points at the season finale in Brazil.
