F1: Schumacher Frustrated By Senna Clash
Michael Schumacher's 2011 season came to a disappointing end Sunday at Interlagos...
Adam Cooper, SpeedTV Sao Paulo (BRA)
Michael Schumacher admits he was disappointed after the final race of the season in Brazil was spoiled by a puncture he received after being tapped in the rear by Bruno Senna – although he admitted it would still have been a hard race.
Senna received a drive-through penalty as a result of the clash. Ironically, Schumacher experienced a near identical incident in 2006, when he was hit by Giancarlo Fisichella’s Renault while battling for the title with the Italian’s teammate.
“It was a difficult one, and it had quite a few memories to 2006, my last race that I did before my retirement,” said Schumacher. “Exactly the same circumstances, again somebody that seemed to have a problem to take the normal trajectory of corners, and ran into me.
“It’s a shame. It would have been a nice race, some solid points we could have taken home. Although for sure as we’ve seen with Nico (Rosberg, Mercedes teammate), it was a tough race for us. We saw already Friday with these sorts of temperatures that we were struggling a bit more than other people were.
“My balance for the first two stints due to some damage that occurred after this tire damage wasn’t perfect, but we altered it for the last stint, and actually it was OK then.”
Asked to sum up his season, the seven-time World Champion said: “The sum-up is that we very much look forward to next year. We have a tough and strong winter in front of us. All the guys are working flat out to get us where we belong, and that’s closer to the winning road. I hope desperately that next year that’s going to be the first step towards that.”