AUGUST 25, 2005
Michael Schumacher angles for a new contract
Behind the rumours of Michael Schumacher joining McLaren there appear to be negotiations for the German to stay on for probably two more years with Scuderia Ferrari. Schumacher's current contract with Ferrari runs out at the end of 2006.
© The Cahier Archive
Behind the rumours of Michael Schumacher joining McLaren there appear to be negotiations for the German to stay on for probably two more years with Scuderia Ferrari. Schumacher's current contract with Ferrari runs out at the end of 2006 and it is always assumed that Michael will stay with Ferrari until the end of his career but Ferrari may not be able to pay the $40m salary that Michael now commands and stories in the German press say that this figure is going to go up to nearly $50m with a new contract. Ferrari would obviously like to keep Michael but the team no longer has an open chequebook, particularly as results this year have been very disappointing. This will effect the team's revenues in 2006 and that in turn may affect the amount of money available to invest for the future. McLaren may not necessarily want to have Michael Schumacher in one of its cars - based on the argument that a victory would always be credited to Michael rather than to the team - but the reality is that as long as Michael remains fast he would be an asset to any team. Schumacher seems to want to go on racing and so, inevitably, there are going to be talks with all possible teams, if only to push up Michael's salary.