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Schumacher 'clever' to cancel 2009 comeback - Andretti

ESPNF1 Staff
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Michael Schumacher on the Ferrari pit wall shortly after his aborted comeback © Sutton Images
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Former world champion Mario Andretti has claimed Michael Schumacher was "very clever" to call off his Formula One comeback last year and suggested there was more to the decision than the official explanation.

Scumacher had agreed to fill in for Ferrari last July following Felipe Massa's crash in Hungary. But before the Valencia grand prix he withdrew because injuries sustained in a motorcycle testing crash some months earlier were still causing concerns.

Andretti, who won the drivers' title in 1978, said he thought Schumacher called off the Ferrari comeback for other reasons.

"I was a little bit disappointed that he didn't come back last year," he said. "But that he did not [return then] was a wise decision for many reasons. He had never been to Valencia before, Ferrari's was not the best car, he didn't know the tyres. Altogether, very clever."

But his comments were not well received in German newspaper the Express who warned: "Mr Andretti: take care before making distant diagnoses from America."

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