Schumacher Sent Apology SMS to Barrichello

Yes, it took Michael Schumacher a while until apologizing for the Hungarian Grand Prix incident involving him and Rubens Barrichello, but the 7-time world champion finally proceeded to doing it prior to this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, at Spa-Francorchamps.

Blamed by many, including the very man who'll start his 300th grand prix in career Rubens Barrichello, that he didn't issue a personal apology to the Brazilian after the event at Hungaroring, Schumacher finally sent his former Ferrari teammate an SMS in which he said he was sorry for his life-threatening maneuver.

“I received a message from him today, an SMS. I just said thank you, no problem. I accepted it, wished him a good weekend, life goes on,” Barrichello told reporters in Belgium.

Initially (and by that we mean shortly after the Hungarian GP was over) Schumacher did not admit to doing anything wrong in the race, although the footage clearly showed he nearly pushed Barrichello into the pit wall when the Brazilian tried to overtake him. Only inches separated the Williams F1 racer from disaster, a move which he later described as worthy of a black flag (disqualification).

A few days later, Schumacher wrote on his personal website that he overreacted and he publicly apologized for his maneuver, but clearly insisted it was nothing personal with his former teammate from Ferrari.

But when the Brazilian media interviewed the 38-year old during the summer break, Barrichello told them Schumacher never apologized to him personally. He added that the 41-year old driver would be the last person in the paddock that he'd have a beer with.

“I have great respect for his championships, but I have no great desire to have him as a friend. Life is about respect for others and forgiveness,” said Barrichello at the time.

UPDATE: Michael Schumacher explained why he sent the SMS to his former teammate:

"There were two reasons I sent the text. One of the main reasons is that it is his 300th grand prix and we have quite a lot of history together so I thought it was appropriate to congratulate him. The second reason was to] clarify the point because he sort of felt that I wanted to push him against the wall and very clearly this was not my ambition. I wanted to race very tightly but without any contact. [I wanted to] clarify that if he felt that this was the case then I was sorry for that," said Schu in a short interview with the BBC.