Following three years on the sidelines, Michael Schumacher returns to Formula One this year with Mercedes. In order to help prepare for this return, the seven-time champion recently conducted a three day GP2 test at Jerez ahead of his Mercedes debut next month.
"The test was super - We have been handicapped a bit because of the weather in the first two days but on the third day we could do a lot and even simulate a race on slicks," Schumacher stated on his personal website. "It went better than I had expected. I immediately felt well in the car, it was as if I never was gone.”
One area of concern ahead of the test was his neck muscles. Following Felipe Massa’s accident in Hungary last year, Schumacher hoped to return to racing with Ferrari, but after testing a 2006-spec Ferrari, he and his medical advisors declared that the neck injury sustained following a motorbike shunt would keep him out of the sport.
Fired up with his new Mercedes deal, Schumacher’s GP2 test left him with no problems.
"The after-effects of that accident are long [gone], that’s why I was sure that the neck would not cause any problems," Schumacher declared. "This was one year ago, that’s over."
While Schumacher is confident the injury is now behind him, he admits that the demands of Formula One machinery are much greater than that of a GP2 car.
"Formula One is another thing, the g-forces are higher, that’s not really comparable," he admitted. "That is why I look forward so much to testing in February. Only then the old feeling will be completely back. I can’t wait to be back there."