Formula One

By James Foxall

25th October 2006

	Afterwards, he said he needed another five laps to make it on to the podium, and added that despite his performance, he hadn’t reconsidered his decision to call it a day after 16 years in F1

Ferrari young gun Felipe Massa might have won the Brazilian GP and Fernando Alonso the 2006 world championship – but it was old-stager Michael Schumacher who was the star of the show.

The German finished his last race in fourth following a puncture early on. Afterwards, he said he needed another five laps to make it on to the podium, and added that despite his performance, he hadn’t reconsidered his decision to call it a day after 16 years in F1.

The 37-year-old German said: “At the start, people kept asking ‘What is your decision, when will you make your decision?’ And when I made my decision, people now ask if I will change my mind. It’s funny. I certainly have no plans to change my retirement.”

He added: “The race was chaotic, I think that is the right word. We really had a superb car today. From the pure speed, we could have lapped everybody. So I have to say it was the perfect end to the season in terms of car performance, but for me it simply didn’t work out well.

“For Felipe, it worked out extremely well. He is the first Brazilian to win his home grand prix since Ayrton Senna, and I want to congratulate him.”

Schumacher’s wife Corinna said: “I’m happy that we’re going home healthy, that nothing happened in all these years and that we got away with just the one broken leg.” New world champion Fernando Alonso also paid tribute to Schumacher. The 25-year-old, who became the youngest ever double title winner, added: “I always said that to become champion when Michael was still on the track has maybe more value than when he retired, and I have been extremely lucky to win the last two championships he raced in.”

Massa, who dominated what he described as the easiest race of his life to send the home fans wild, said: “Michael is really a friend, a very special guy for me. He was always positive about me, he always wanted to have me in the team and I will miss him.”