Formula One news

Schumacher admits feeling nervous on return

Michael Schumacher returned to an official test session for the first since since the German retired from Formula 1, October 2006. Schumacher was invited by Ferrari to join the team at the Circuit de Catalunya for a two-day test session.

Speaking about his first day of action in Spain he told GPUpdate.net: "It's great fun. I like it. I'm quite happy because the way I'm able to run is good enough to help the team, despite me being out for so long. There were some question marks and I think I've answered those. It's good to know I'm still good at what I'm doing."

Ferrari was hoping Schumacher could help the team work on next year's car where traction control is no longer allowed. Speaking about the way the car now feels without any traction control Schumacher said: "The feeling with the car without the traction control is actually worse than in 2000 (the last full year without traction control), because now we have different engines. Before you had the V10 and with that engine you could play with the gears and now that's impossible. The slow corners are the most difficult corners to manage."

Even though he had not driven a Formula One car in an official F1 event for nearly 13 months the seven-time world champion soon felt at home again in Ferrari's F1 car. Speaking about how easily he adapted to the car he said: "It came back very quickly. Within two laps I knew what I had to do. For me, that was a big question mark. It's good to know all this pretty quickly. I felt nervous when I got back in the car."

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