Schumacher searches for positives

Editor

After suffering his fifth retirement of the season, Michael Schumacher was left scratching his head as to how things went wrong in Canada…

After suffering his fifth retirement of the season, Michael Schumacher was left scratching his head as to how things went wrong in Canada.

The German was forced to end his charge on Sunday when his DRS flap jammed. Initially, a mechanic unsuccessfully tried to bang the device back into place during a scheduled pit stop, but even when Schumacher returned to the pits on the next lap to have the problem fixed, the team were unable to get it to close.

“It’s a mix of hydraulic and mechanical system and we need to understand what exactly the problem is,” Schumacher told Sky Sports. “We had it in Bahrain; we’re not yet clear whether it’s the same problem, but we’ll find out soon.”

Schumacher insisted that no good could come from looking to assign blame for the incident.

“Of course it’s disappointing for all of us but it’s not a question of pointing fingers; stuff like this happens. I know the team are doing their best and that it probably hits them even harder than me. We’ll be back on the attack in Valencia,” he added later.

Despite this, team principal Ross Brawn apologised to his driver after the race.

“He suffered a hydraulic issue which left his DRS jammed open and it was not possible to fix it in race conditions,” said Brawn. “I can only apologise to Michael for a further technical failure.”

The former World Champion tried to take some positives from the race, pointing to team-mate Nico Rosberg’s sixth spot as giving the team valuable points in the Constructors’ race.

“Maybe the positive is that Nico can sort of drive and get the points for the team, so at least we’re not completely lost and nowhere in the championship, but certainly for the boys on my car it’s disappointing,” he said.

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