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Rumours point to Schumi return

Speculation is rampant that German Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher will come out of retirement and once again take the wheel for Ferrari.

Published: 28 July 2009 08:12 CEST
Rumours point to Schumi return
Photo: DPA

The rumours come three days after the Italian team’s driver Felipe Massa fractured his skull after an accident while qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday at the Hungaroring near Budapest. The Brazilian was hit in the head by an 800-gramme suspension spring that came off of Brawn-Mercedes driver Rubens Barichello’s car.

Massa lost consciousness and drove into a tyre wall before being pulled from the vehicle and rushed to hospital.

The 28-year-old is still in critical condition but stable while in a medically-induced coma.

Ferrari is now scrambling to find another superstar to maintain their chase against McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, who took the title at Sunday’s race. With the Valencia Grand Prix in Spain coming up in three weeks, the team is looking for someone to drive in the Massa’s place.

“Ferrari now needs Schumi to replace Massa and Michael is considering it,” reported the Italian newspaper Gazetta dello Sport.

The newspaper added: “Those around Michael say he would consider a comeback if Ferrari would outright ask, but he probably won’t make any commitments beyond the current season.”

Schumacher has been retired since 2006 but remains contracted to Ferrari as a consultant.

Former Ferrari driver and three-time world champion driver Niki Lauda told German daily Die Welt that Schumacher’s coming out of retirement would be good for the sport.

“If I were [Ferrari President Luca di] Montezemolo, I would have no second-thoughts about calling up Michael. Everything depends on his decision to do so. Of the available drivers, Schumacher is the best, and with him, Formula 1 will see an increase of interest in the sport go up 20 percent.”

F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone, who recently made headlines for complimenting Hitler’s leadership skills, also said he would gladly welcome the German 40-year-old back to his horsepower circus.

But all the enthusiasm has yet to garner a response from the man himself. There are still questions of injuries he sustained during a motorcycle accident in February in Spain. Schumacher’s manager Willi Weber said on Sunday that the reports were all speculation.

“As far as I can see, I don’t see it happening,” he said.

The Valencia Grand Prix takes place from August 21 until August 23. Massa is expected to recover, but his racing future is still unknown. The last fatality at a Formula 1 event was at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, where Ayrton Senna, also from Brazil, was killed in a crash.

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From lizards to water, eco-bumps snag Tesla’s giant Berlin car factory

In the green forest outside Berlin, a David and Goliath-style battle is playing out between electric carmaker Tesla and environmental campaigners who want to stop its planned "gigafactory".

Published: 18 April 2021 15:11 CEST
From lizards to water, eco-bumps snag Tesla's giant Berlin car factory
Tesla's gigafactory outside the doors of Berlin. dpa-Zentralbild | Patrick Pleul

“When I saw on TV that the Tesla factory was going to be built here, I couldn’t believe it,” said Steffen Schorch, driving his trusty German-made car.

The 60-year-old from Erkner village in the Berlin commuter belt has become one of the faces of the fight against the US auto giant’s first European factory, due to open in the Brandenburg region near Berlin in July.

“Tesla needs far too much water, and the region does not have this water,” said the environmental activist, a local representative of the Nabu ecologist campaign group.

Announced in November 2019, Tesla’s gigafactory project was warmly welcomed as an endorsement of the “Made in Germany” quality mark – but was immediately met with opposition from local residents.

Demonstrations, legal action, open letters – residents have done everything in their power to delay the project, supported by powerful
environmental campaign groups Nabu and Gruene Liga.

Tesla was forced to temporarily suspend forest clearing last year after campaigners won an injunction over threats to the habitats of resident lizards and snakes during their winter slumber.

READ MORE: Is Germany’s Volkswagen becoming ‘the new Tesla’ as it ramps up e-vehicle production?

And now they have focused their attention on water consumption – which could reach up to 3.6 million cubic metres a year, or around 30 percent of the region’s available supply, according to the ZDF public broadcaster.

The extra demand could place a huge burden on a region already affected by water shortages and hit by summer droughts for the past three years.

Local residents and environmentalists are also concerned about the impact on the wetlands, an important source of biodiversity in the region.

Tesla Street

“The water situation is bad, and will get worse,” Heiko Baschin, a spokesman for the neighbourhood association IG Freienbrink, told AFP.

Brandenburg’s environment minister Axel Vogel sought to play down the issue, saying in March that “capacity has not been exceeded for now”.

But the authorities admit that “the impact of droughts is significant” and have set up a working group to examine the issue in the long term.

The gigafactory is set to sprawl over 300 hectares – equivalent to approximately 560 football fields – southwest of the German capital.

Tesla is aiming to produce 500,000 electric vehicles a year at the plant, which will also be home to “the largest battery factory in the world”,
according to group boss Elon Musk.

In a little over a year and a half, swathes of coniferous forest have already been cleared to make way for vast concrete rectangles on a red earth base, accessed via the already iconic Tesla Strasse (Tesla Street).

German bureaucracy

The new site still has only provisional construction permits, but Tesla has been authorised by local officials to begin work at its own risk.

Final approval depends on an assessment of the project’s environmental impact – including the issue of water.

In theory, if approval is not granted, Tesla will have to dismantle the entire complex at its own expense.

But “pressure is being exerted (on the regulatory authorities), linked to Tesla’s significant investment”, Gruene Liga’s Michael Greschow told AFP.

In early April, Tesla said it was “irritated” by the slow pace of German bureaucracy, calling for exceptions to the rules for projects that help the environment.

Economy Minister Peter Altmaier agreed in April that his government “had not done enough” to reduce bureaucracy, lauding the gigafactory as a “very important project”.

Despite Germany’s reputation for efficiency, major infrastructure projects are often held up by bureaucracy criticised as excessive by the business community.

Among the most embarrassing examples are Berlin’s new airport which opened last October after an eight-year delay and Stuttgart’s new train station, which has been under construction since 2010.

Brandenburg’s economy minister, Joerg Steinbach, raised the possibility in February that the Tesla factory could be delayed beyond its July planned opening for the same reason.

SEE ALSO: Tesla advertises over 300 jobs for new Gigafactory near Berlin

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