Ferrari boss: Michael Schumacher poised to return with Mercedes Grand Prix

 Ferrari boss: Michael Schumacher poised to return with Mercedes Grand Prix

Michael Schumacher:

told the president of Ferrari in a telephone conversation this week that he expected to make a Formula One comeback in 2010 with Mercedes-Benz.

German media reports suggest that the deal has been done subject to the fitness of the seven-time world champion, who was unable to make a comeback with Ferrari last September due to a neck injury sustained in a motorcycle accident earlier in the year.

While hosting a pre-Christmas lunch in Maranello, Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo said of Schumacher: “We spoke yesterday [Wednesday]. He told me there was a strong possibility [that he would race for Mercedes Grand Prix], but it was not 100-percent decided.

Di Montezemolo, who apparently was surprised, added, “I thought there must be someone else who sounded like him. The real Michael Schumacher is a Ferrari consultant who confirmed to me that he will finish his career with Ferrari. The other one is also German, he has the same name, same age, 40 or 41, but this one has decided to do a new career. Everybody can do what they prefer in life. It is wonderful he wants to try again. I like these people. But it is not the Michael I know. It is his twin.”

Di Montezemolo continued:

“I have cried in this job twice. The first time was in 1975 at Monza when Niki [Lauda] won the championship for Ferrari for the first time in 13 years. The second time was when Michael got out of the car for the last time at a track day. It was very moving. For me, this is difficult. If I talk with him as a friend and see this determination [to race again], I am pleased. But as the president of Ferrari, I am sad. He has given a lot to Ferrari and received a lot from us.

“This is why we have to accept that there is another guy called Michael, not the real Michael that we knew. I don't know what the possibilities are at Mercedes for this other Michael."

The irony here is that it was di Montezemolo who first got Schumacher fired up about making a comeback, when he asked the seven-time world champion to stand in for the injured Felipe Massa after last year's Hungarian Grand Prix.

“I called Michael and told him I needed his help to replace Felipe,” di Montezemolo said. “For five minutes he said no. I had to convince him to consider it. Then he said yes. When I spoke to him again, he had been to see his doctor in Germany. He said he could not do anything because of the problems with his neck. He was more than sad--he was destroyed."

It seems that once introduced to the idea of racing again, Schumacher became set on it. With Massa and Fernando Alonso signed up for 2010, however, there was no vacancy at Ferrari, which was why, as di Montezemolo has now confirmed, the Scuderia tried to persuade the FIA to change the rules and allow teams to race a third car.

Separately, the German newspaper, Bild reported that Schumacher's 2010 Mercedes Grand Prix deal had been signed subject to the medical examinations, and that his program would begin before the end of this month in Abu Dhabi, where he would drive a GP2 car on the Yas Island circuit.

Mercedes-Benz Motorsport director Norbert Haug has declined to comment. However, Daimler boss Dieter Zetsche confirmed to Bild that the identity of the team's second driver would not be announced until after the New Year.

All the signs are that subject to the condition of his neck, Schumacher will be Nico Rosberg's teammate next season, racing for the brand that got him started in big-time motor racing.

Schumacher will be 41 on Jan. 3. His younger rivals might care to note that Juan Fangio did not even race a Grand Prix car until he was 38 years old, won his first world championship two years later, and clinched his fifth title at the age of 46.