Schumacher Still Believes in 2010 Title

While a few poor results in the first rounds of the season might affect a title contender's confidence for the entire campaign, this doesn't apply to 7-time world champion Michael Schumacher also. The 41-year old German has enough experience in the series to know that his current 30-point deficit in the overall classification is certainly not insurmountable by the end of the season.

Piggybacking on Fernando Alonso's comments on Wednesday, who said that he doesn't rule out Schu from the title fight just yet, the German driver insisted that the 2009 Formula One title is not compromised.

“If you take the points system and you see that like Fernando, he had a retirement in Malaysia (and) for whatever reason it can happen to all of us. I had mine in Malaysia and at one point of the season it will hit the guys fighting for the championship,” said Schumacher, prior to the Chinese Grand Prix this weekend.

“So if we have a quick enough development speed, there is no reason why we cannot fight for championship. It is such a long season ahead of us, it is so early, and we know how quick the rate of development is. There is good potential to develop this car so no reason to think this season is over for Nico (Rosberg) or myself,” added the German driver.

Schumacher is currently 10th in the overall classification, having scored only 9 points in 3 races, some 26 points behind teammate Nico Rosberg and sitting on a 0-3 record against the latter.

In terms of development work, Mercedes GP is likely to debut a hugely revised W01 – a 'B' variant of the car – from as early as the Spanish Grand Prix, with weight distribution, rear suspension and the gearbox housing changed completely.