2. Michael Schumacher retires (again)
Schumacher's return to Formula One since 2010 hasn't been a particularly good one. The seven-times World Championship found it difficult to adjust the changes to the sport upon his return in 2010 and was beaten by team-mate
Nico Rosberg. Schumacher's 2011 season was far more impressive with good results at Canada, Belgium and Italy but the German struggled with qualifying and was once again beaten by his team-mate. On the other hand, 2012 appears to be a far more impressive season for Schumacher and he has shown some genuine speed. Schumacher has out-qualified his team-mate at 8 of 14 races, secured one pole position (which was removed due to a penalty) and has started on the first two rows at six different races. He has also out-scored his team-mate 6 times to 1 at races they have both finished but Rosberg has an overall advantage as he's scored 93 points to Schumacher's 43. Despite out-pacing his team-mate for most of the season, Schumacher's main problem therefore seems to be an inability to finish races. In his previous career, before retiring in 2006, one of Schumacher's greatest attributes was the ability to bring the car home whether it was one the top step of the podium or in the bottom half of the points scoring positions. Unreliability would usually affect his team-mates and the German would usually take great risks that would pay off (such as running dry tyres in the rain) whilst his rivals would fall off the track. So far in 2012 Schumacher's bad luck seems to have all come at once. Out of fourteen races Schumacher has only managed to finish seven. Two retirements at Spain and Singapore were arguably his fault and cost both him and the team a couple of points, however the majority of his races exits have been down to team errors and poor car reliability. In Australia he retired from third with a gearbox problem; at China he was running third again until he was forced to retire with a loose wheel-nut; a fuel pressure problem at Monaco retire him from sixth; ninth at Canada was spoiled by a stuck DRS and he had to retire from Hungary with a fuel pressure problem. On the other hand, Rosberg has finished every race but four times outside of the points positions. Schumacher's only really consolation was a third place at the European Grand Prix but this still pales in comparison to Rosberg's victory at China. Sadly, Schumacher's contract with Mercedes comes to an end in 2012 and it was announced on 28th September that
Lewis Hamilton from Mclaren will be replacing him for the upcoming season. This news is a bit of a shame for the seven-times World Champion as he was beginning to find some genuine speed against his team-mate . He will most likely retire at the end of the season after his unluckiest season in Formula One since joining the sport in 1992. He clearly still has some speed but that alone was probably not enough for employers Mercedes or the seven-times World Champion himself. The results were not pleasing either party so it isn't surprising that Schumacher has left the team