'Sad' Schu not thinking about future

Michael Schumacher says he is currently too disappointed to decide whether or not he will make a second attempt at a Formula 1 comeback at a later date.

The German was forced to pull the plug on a sensational return at next week’s European Grand Prix after medical checks on Monday showed that his injured neck had not healed enough to withstand the strain of an F1 race environment following his nasty motorcycle accident in February.

Ferrari has since confirmed long-time test driver Luca Badoer as stand-in for the injured Felipe Massa at Valencia, although this has not stopped speculation that Schumacher could still drive at a later event should his neck recover in time or even return as part of a three-car Ferrari team in 2010.

Appearing at a press conference in Geneva in which he gave further details about why he had to abort his comeback plan, a downbeat Schumacher admitted the disappointment of the current situation, rather than his future, was currently dominating his thoughts.

"Speculation in this business is pretty natural, the fact is that I'm disappointed I'm not able to do what I looked forward to do...that's how I feel for now," he was quoted as saying by AFP.

Although Schumacher had acknowledged from the outset that his lingering injuries could thwart his comeback plans, the German says his test in a 2007 Ferrari had still been needed as it was the only accurate way of discovering if his neck was still strong enough.

"There’s only one way to see if your body is able to cope with the forces generated by a Formula 1 car: try it out," he said.

"I did some simulations and I used many training machines, but none of them was able to reproduce the stress and the forces you have to deal with on board of a single-seater.

"So we had to drive one to understand what was going on.

"My doctor had told me that we could do this test and then, after a short break, add some more stress to see how the situation developed. In the end we’ve done everything we could do, but it didn’t go as we wanted.”

The seven-time world champion admitted the realisation that he couldn’t make a return had left him saddened.

"Well you would imagine that obviously I do feel rather frustrated and quite sad," Schumacher added.

"We have prepared very seriously, done as much as we could do from our side, but right from the beginning, Ferrari and ourself, we always said that I would do the job on condition I was ready for it and sadly I couldn't fulfil this target.”

Source: ITV