Comeback syndrome

Seven times world drivers' champion. Ninety-one wins and 154 top-3 finishes in a Formula One motor racing career that spanned 15-plus years. Surely Michael Schumacher has nothing left to prove.

But talk about a comeback to racing's richest circuit - first in the summer with Ferrari as a temporary replacement driver, and now again as the new Mercedes team look to fill out their stable of drivers - just won't pipe down. After three seasons away from the driver's seat the 40-year-old German appears ready to dive back in.

It's not unprecedented for superstar athletes to get the itch for another shot at success, even years after they'd quit. Czech tennis player Martina Navratilova came back after a nine-year layoff, German boxer Henry Maske after 11. Basketball's Michael Jordan liked coming back so much he did it twice, and Lance Armstrong came within five-and-a-half minutes of winning the Tour de France after a three-year layoff.

All had a degree of success, but none consistently hit the heights of their prior career.

The thrill seekers

Thorsten Weidig, a sports psychologist at the Ruhr University of Bochum, said it's not always about winning.

“I think the main thing is sensation-seeking,” he said. “You feel the need to take part in an activity that satisfies you completely. For people like Michael Schumacher or Lance Armstrong it's probably very difficult to find such a sense of being alive, away from sports.”

Some very successful athletes, says Weidig, feel they have no choice but to come back, so great is the pull of the sport they spent their lives mastering. And the attention from an adoring public is also hard to give up.

Schumacher, as the only German drivers' champion ever, revolutionized the sport in his home country, his wins leading to a massive upsurge in interest in racing among Germans.

He is still a much sought-after advertising pitchman, and will remain a sporting icon in Germany, no matter what decision he makes on a comeback or how he performs, should he go through with one.

But, said Weidig, if he feels that “the audience wants him back,” that might be enough to convince him that it is worth a try.

Unfinished business

Not all athletes are driven by external factors, or a hunger to recapture the thrills of their past exploits, however, says Bernd Strauss, the head of the sports psychology program at the University of Muenster.

“It's different for different athletes,” said Strauss. “What alternatives does he or she have, professionally? What were the circumstances that made them retire in the first place?”

A footballer who had to quit the sport because of an injury at a relatively young age, said Strauss, might well have a different outlook on retirement than someone who stopped later on, by choice.

Schumacher did bow out of Formula One more or less on his own terms, and after a career that no other driver can match - at least statistically. But he might feel he has a few scores to settle.

Schumacher finished a distant third to Fernando Alonso in 2005, his penultimate season, and then was pipped for the title again by the Spaniard in 2006.

At the end of that last season, Schumacher stepped aside as Ferrari hired Finland's Kimi Raikonnen to lead the charge against Alonso. After retiring, Schumacher said he knew that staying on would be a disaster for his younger teammate and friend Felipe Massa, who would have been left without a place at Ferrari. Perhaps now Schumacher feels he made his exit too soon.

A new role as lead driver in the cockpit of last year's champion car (Mercedes took over Brawn GP in the offseason) could be a situation in which even a rusty, or over-the-hill driver could make an immediate impact.

Dangers involved

Schumacher was just about ready to come back a few months ago, after an accident sidelined Massa, and Ferrari went looking for a replacement driver. But Schumacher's neck injury, sustained in a motorcycle crash, had not fully healed. After deliberation, he heeded his doctor's advice not to start racing again.

That injury appears to have healed now, and the seven-time champion has been given the medical green light to race again. But auto racing demands a special sort of mental rigor - it's a sport in which the participants take their lives into their own hands each time they climb into the car.

Some doubt whether a three-year layoff could really be good for sharpening the senses, and have urged Schumacher to find other outlets for his competitive nature.

“For a race car driver, there is only racing,” said Weidig, explaining why it's not realistic for Schumacher to replace his need for speed.

“Racing is his way of getting that feeling of satisfaction. He can't just say ‘okay, now I'll play golf,' it won't have the same thrill.”

Still, others think a comeback to auto racing doesn't necessarily pose a greater challenge than other sports. Benjamin Fischer, a sports psychologist based in the southwestern German city of Freiburg, believes that Schumacher might have it easier than a lot of people think.

“Driving takes good fine motor skills - skills which you never completely lose. You don't unlearn how to drive,” he said. “In other sports, things that require more brute strength, speed, or endurance, a comeback to the highest level can be almost impossible.”

If Schumacher's mental toughness is still there, it seems, his comeback plan could be a winner.

Author: Matt Hermann
Editor: Chuck Penfold