APRIL 20, 2007

The future of Ralf Schumacher

Ralf Schumacher's contract expires at the end of the year and already Nick Heidfeld's management has been stirring up rumours that he might be moving across to Toyota to replace Ralf. This does not make much sense apart from the fact that it might be a useful lever in negotiations with BMW - if the people at BMW think Nick might actually leave their team and join Toyota, a move that makes little sense - except financially. If Heidfeld wants to win races (which is usually the primary motivation of serious F1 drivers) he will stay where he is as BMW is widely seen as a much more competitive organisation than Toyota.

The fact remains that Toyota does want to improve and there are some within the empire who realize that in order to do that, there needs to be someone to inspire the team and push things forward. There are some who would argue that Ralf has not done that with Toyota and that the team would be better off looking for someone else hungrier and cheaper.

Ralf's management says that talks will begin later in the year.