Following Fernando Alonso's winning debut with the Scuderia, the Italian media went right ahead to praising the officials at Maranello for bringing a true champion to represent the Prancing Horse in Formula One. They haven't settled with only that however, as some news headlines joked at 7-time world champion Michael Schumacher for his poor start of the season with Mercedes GP.
“Strange Sunday afternoon for Herr Michael,” was how Corriera della Sera looked at Schumacher's return race in Bahrain, while adding that “with all respect for Schumacher, the 41-year-old living legend, Ferrari made the right choice with the 28-year-old Alonso.” Additionally, well-known Gazzetta dello Sport opinionated that Alonso is the perfect racer to cut “the umbilical cord that tied Ferrari to the Schumacher era.”
More criticism in Italy surfaced in the pages of Genoa-based Il Secolo XIX newspaper, whose reporters pointed out that Schumacher was the “world champion of arrogance” through the duration of the Bahrain weekend.
“There was no disgrace (in Schumacher's performance), but he doesn't deserve much praise, either,” added the Rome-based Corriera dello Sport.
Needless to say, the German media did not stay aside and watch their world champion get torn into pieces, with daily Bild Zeitung headlining that “just as there are bad losers, it is also possible to be a bad winner,” hinting that Ferrari's 1-2 was actually triggered by Sebastian Vettel's engine problems rather than a strong Ferrari car.
“Does Schumacher really deserve this (criticism)?” asked Sport Bild, pointing to the fact that the Italians have turned their back on Schumacher less than 4 months after he left Maranello.
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