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Mika Hakkinen Says Schumacher Is a "Tragic Ex-Hero"

Former Formula One champion Mika Hakkinen has recently joined the group of Michael Schumacher critics around the Great Circus. Despite the fact that these two racers have always treated each other with a maximum level of respect, the Finn now regards the 7-time world champion as a “tragic ex-hero” who should really contemplate retirement for the second time in his career.

In his newest column for the Munich newspaper TZ, Hakkinen begins by pointing out the near-death experience lived by Schumacher in the very last race of the season. In the opening lap of the Abu Dhabi GP, the Force India car driven by Vitantonio Liuzzi “climbed” on the Mercedes W01 with Schu in the cockpit and almost hit the German in the head.

Michael is for me now a tragic ex-hero,” began Hakkinen his aforementioned column. “I ask myself why on earth he got back into the cockpit. There is the most successful man in motor sport driving down in the pack and making a ridiculous mistake in Abu Dhabi that almost cost him his life.”

In addition to that however, Michael Schumacher has just completed his first full season in Formula One without grabbing a single podium along the way. The 7-time world champ had to settle for 9th place in the overall classification, which makes for a truly disappointing comeback into the sport.

What has the man who has won more than anyone else still to prove?” asked himself rhetorically Hakkinen. “In my view, he is dismantling his own legacy bit by bit. And I see it making no difference whether it is for technical reasons or because he can no longer keep up with the boys.

Just like Schumacher, Hakkinen also decided to return to racing after his retirement from Formula One, but decided to do so in a series – the DTM – where age and lack of training is not so important and vital as in the Great Circus.

After three years I returned to the cockpit myself – for Mercedes in the DTM. And I also had to recognize that even as a Formula One world champion, there are no gifts for the older ones. I won only three times more. You can neither stop the wheel of time, nor turn it back.”

Personally, we were never close friends because he always came across, to me anyway, a little bit too arrogant,” concluded Hakkinen.
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