As Michael Schumacher announces his return to Formula One, RICHARD WILLIAMSsays the German will be a sight to behold in a Silver Arrow but his ruthlessness may provoke misgivings

THE LAST time we saw Michael Schumacher as a Formula One driver, his Ferrari was a blur of red diving inside the silver McLaren of Kimi Raikkonen as the cars roared along the pit straight at Interlagos shortly before the finish of the 2006 Brazilian grand prix, the final round of the season.

In the mind of the German, there was more than fourth place at stake as he swooped past the Finn who would be taking his seat at Maranello the following year. Schumacher was making a point.

There is not much doubt that he would like to have stayed at the Scuderia Ferrari for another year, but contracts had been signed and the company’s president, Luca di Montezemolo, felt it was time to move on. Schumacher accepted the decision, along with a new consultancy deal that kept him tied to the team with which he had won five of his seven world championships, and where – but for the legacy of a neck injury suffered while racing motorbikes – he would have made his comeback earlier this year in place of the stricken Felipe Massa.

In Bahrain next March he will race in his 250th grand prix, with the prospect of a possible three seasons to come at the wheel of a Mercedes-Benz.

By that time he would be 44, still two years younger than Juan Manuel Fangio when the incomparable Argentinian won the last of his fifth titles.

His comeback, like that of Lance Armstrong to the Tour de France this summer, will be huge boost to a sport which has lost public esteem through a series of scandals in recent years.

But if he turns out, at 41, to have lost the edge that brought him seven world championships, that additional interest will be shortlived.

But in his press conference yesterday he sounded fully confident he will be able to resume at his familiar level of competitiveness.

In his home gymnasium he has been working on his fitness. He never stopped training in his retirement, although with less intensity. But his weight is back to where it was, and he sees no reason why Formula One’s physical demands should cause him problems. “I have no doubt on this,” he said.

Like Armstrong, who also won his sport’s biggest prize seven times and then took a four-year sabbatical, Schumacher will not return without provoking certain misgivings in the minds of those to whom it seems less than healthy for a forward-looking sport to welcome the return of a man carrying so much baggage along with his trophies.

This is a champion who secured his first title in 1994 by appearing to cause an accident with Damon Hill, who unquestionably tried to drive Jacques Villeneuve off the road to steal another in 1997 and who parked his car in the middle of the track during the final qualifying session at Monaco in his final season to prevent Fernando Alonso from setting a faster time.

Of earlier world champions, Nino Farina was occasionally a danger to his rivals and Ayrton Senna introduced Formula One to dodgem-style ethics, but there was a degree of cynical calculation about Schumacher’s chicanery that many found repellent, and which leaves a permanent stain on his statistically unmatched record.

In his absence, too, we have seen the rise of Lewis Hamilton, the fulfilment of Jenson Button’s promise and the arrival of Sebastian Vettel, most critics’ bet as the next German world champion. Hamilton and Vettel, who were aged six and four respectively when Schumacher first raced a Formula One car, are likely to welcome the chance to match their skills and youthful confidence against a legendary figure.

But some of the veterans might not be so thrilled, and the 24-year-old Nico Rosberg, who left Williams to sign for Mercedes before a hint of his compatriot’s return had emerged, will now have to fight his way out of a giant’s shadow.

The only available precedents for Schumacher’s decision give no real clue to his prospects.

Niki Lauda, having won the championship in 1975 and 1977, left Formula One at the end of 1979 to run his airline, returning with McLaren two years later when that venture hit trouble, and picked up a third title in 1984.

Nigel Mansell quit after winning the championship with Williams in 1992 and made a brief, four-race comeback with the team after Senna’s death in 1994, winning one grand prix, but then humiliated himself by attempting a full return with McLaren the next year, only to find he could not fit into the car.

What no one can doubt is the extent of Schumacher’s commitment. Another similarity to Armstrong is his willingness to do whatever it takes to make himself competitive with the new generation. And it would be a hard heart that did not experience some sort of a thrill – the word he kept using yesterday – at the thought of seeing him in a Silver Arrow. Even with a typical driver’s limited knowledge of grand prix history, he will be acutely aware Mercedes do not race to come second.

SCHUMACHER FACTFILE

1969: Born January 3rd in Huerth- Hermuelheim, Germany.

1973: Racing debut in a kart.

1987: Wins German and European kart championships.

1988: Finishes fourth in German Formula Ford championship and second in the European series in first year of car racing.

1990: Wins first major single-seater title, clinching the German Formula Three crown. Steps up to sportscars, driving for Mercedes.

1991: Makes Formula One debut for Jordan in Belgium, qualifying seventh before retiring. Poached by Benetton for the rest of the season.

1992: Takes first grand prix win in Belgium on his way to third in championship.

1994: Wins title, with eight victories, after controversial, last-race clash with Damon Hill.

1995: Retains world crown, with nine victories.

1996: Moves to struggling Ferrari and manages three wins; third in championship.

1997: Wins five races but is stripped of second in the championship for attempting to take out title rival Jacques Villeneuve at Jerez.

1999: Breaks leg at Silverstone when leading the championship.

2000: Finally wins Ferrari's first world title since 1979, amassing nine wins.

2001: Another nine wins and another title, setting a record for all-time victories.

2002: Wins championship in record time, setting mark of 11 victories.

2003: Wins title by a point after six victories, breaking Juan Manuel Fangio's record of five championships.

2004: Breaks his own record for wins in a season for seventh title.

2006: September 10th: announces retirement at end of season after winning Italian Grand Prix.

2009 – July 29th: announces plans to return with Ferrari, deputising for Felipe Massa until the Brazilian is recovered from injuries suffered in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

August 11th: Says he will not make comeback due to a neck injury sustained in a motorbike accident in February.

December 23rd: Signs one-year contract to drive in 2010 with Mercedes GP, ending three years in retirement.