Daimler Official Not Happy with Schumacher's Contract for 2010

Michael Schumacher's return to Formula One seems to have led to plenty of controversy within the Ferrari fans and the Daimler officials all together. If the first one we can understand – the German ace had spent 13 years at the Scuderia until 2009 and his leaving for rivals Mercedes GP was widely regarded as an act of betrayal towards the Italian tifosi – the second seems to be money related.

Specifically, Schumacher's contract for the 2010 season is seen as something at least exaggerate by a member of Daimler's supervisory board, Uwe Werner. According to Werner, the 7 million euro paid by Mercedes-Benz to Michael Schumacher for the upcoming season – no one knows is the sum will remain the same though the German's 3 years of contract with the Stuttgart-based manufacturer – are “hard to justify.”

“For many colleagues, it is unimaginable,” said Werner, according to the Frankfurter Rundschau daily, while once again returning to his personal regret a few weeks ago. “The staff would have better understood if Mercedes had left the F1 altogether,” added the German official.

Needless to say, his comments were not echoed by any other member of the Daimler board. Not only that, but the marque's motorsport director Norbert Haug responded to this criticism, insisting that signing Schu goes beyond the simple act of securing a driver for Merc's F1 programme.

“We believe we know how to invest our money,” responded Haug in an interview with ZDF television, emphasizing the positive consequences of signing Schu in terms of global sales for Mercedes cars.

Many times before actually signing Schu for their F1 team, Haug made it very clear that he aims at keeping the 7-time F1 champion within the Daimler organization as ambassador of the marque or advisor for their road car sector, as it would boost the company's image worldwide.