Former F1 driver David Coulthard isn’t pleased with Michael Schumacher’s apparent criticism as he believes that Schumi should be give more time in this season to gain a firm footing.

David believes that it is not Michael’s fault and Mercedes should be blamed for not offering him the kind of car he likes to drive.

Schumi is 40 points behind his own teammate Nico Rosberg in the first four races and the revised Merc package for the Barcelona GP is being touted as his last chance to avoid being written off.

Coulthard thinks that Schumi should be given more time (at least half a season) before being assessed.

As per him, the current car Schumi is driving was originally made for Jenson Button who switched to McLaren making room for Schumi in the rebranded Brawn team.

Coulthard is hopeful that the seven time world champion will have to wait for Mercedes to develop the right kind of car.

25 year old Briton Lewis Hamilton is finding himself making news for all the wrong reasons this year. His ‘weaving’ defensive driving act at the Malaysian Grand Prix has been heavily criticized by a number of F1 experts and news is that the weaving act will be discussed by at the pre-event drivers’ Briefing in Shanghai.

Hamilton was severely criticized by Brazilian veteran Rubens Barrichello of Williams and Pole Robert Kubica of Renault for his car handling when he defended against Kubica’s team-mate Russian Vitaly Petrov. Barrichello also mentioned that the drivers also have a kind of verbal agreement that you should move only once during the protection of your line.

Hamilton’s defensive tactics were worthy of punishment as it was against the sprit of the competition. Mark Webber is however of the opinion that this issue should be “tidied up” when the drivers congregate for their pre-race briefing in Shanghai.

34 year old, former Formula 1 driver, Ralf Schumacher has openly gone on record and defended his brother’s Formula 1 return. As per Ralf, Michael sees his F1 return in a very relaxed way and he returned to the circuit to have fun and take up a challenge. Michael’s performance this season has been lackluster and therefore many a groups have condemned his return as a failure. His team on the other hand is confident that Michael is looking for his desired car and he is close to getting it, something which is important for the driver. Ralf also did not rule out his chances of the F1 redemption as he currently has signed for another season in the German touring car series DTM. [via WCF]

Michael Schumacher, the seven time world champion with Ferrari with 91 race wins in his kitty is struggling to work up his magic with the Mercedes moniker. The former champ who is on a comeback after a three year lag hasn’t managed to start better than 6th in Bahrain and differs by a whopping 26 points when compared to his team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Nico has managed a podium finish so far and a front row start. As per Mercedes’ competition director Haug, Michael’s stint this time around will not be cut short because of his disappointing season this far. He believes that Michael is motivated enough to be successful for a long-term with Mercedes and he will start working his magic as far as his car does it for him.

His results until now haven’t been his fault and the experts know exactly the problem causing the whole “limitation”.

Felipe Massa is working wonders for Ferrari this season ahead of much hyped teammate Fernando Alonso and the 28-year old Brazilian driver might be rewarded with a contract extension sometime soon. As per the rumor mill, Massa is being extended for three years and his new contract will run through to the end of 2013 which will make him even more secure than Alonso. It was earlier being speculated that Robert Kubica could replace Massa as Alonso’s teammate in 2011. Massa has turned out to be the star performer this season and Ferrari is in no mood to let him go. Indeed, Stefano Domenicali told German magazine Sport Bild that Ferrari wants “to build with Felipe into the future”.

Michael Schumacher, the most successful driver in the history of F1 is still a competent threat to his rivals as per the new generation F1 drivers. He may be struggling this season with three bad races, but he will soon be back to his best. Nico Rosberg mentioned that he has the best team-mate he could ask for and Schumacher will soon get back to business. He has been out fort three years and that is a very long time and therefore a proper comeback will take time.

Nico gave his Mercedes team the first podium finish of the season as Schumacher again failed to impress. Michael himself believes that he is not a magician and he will require more races to get back the winning touch. He did acknowledge that he was pacing the car, but at the moment the car is not where he wants it to be. When he was a champion, he had the car to do it which is an important aspect.

The Mercedes unit is on schedule when it comes to developing a driver specified racer and soon the results will start getting better.

What do you guys think? Is Schumi still a threat to other pilots in Formula One?

As F1 pushes for better road safety measures, star F1 McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton was charged by the Victorian Police for exactly the opposite reasons. Lewis, the 2000 F1 champion was caught doing burnouts in his company car which is a silver 2010 E500 saloon. Lewis was pulled over by a Victorian Police divisional van and he will now be summoned for an improper use of a motor vehicle. His vehicle was also impounded for 48 hours but the officer on duty did appreciate the Briton’s co-operation. Lewis issued an immediate apology to team McLaren condemning his act, while he was terribly worried about denting his repute and he was visibly upset.

While a few put their money on the returning veteran Schumacher in Bahrain and a few others though it would be Red Bull to take home the laurels, it was Fernando Alonso from Ferrari who eventually managed to win the season opener in Bahrain.

Red Bull did run the show initially but it was an exhaust problem which pegged back the Red Bull driver’s advance on the F1 circuit. Sebastian Vettel was the pole sitter for the race but with reduced power he managed to finish fourth. The German driver considered himself lucky to finish the race but he thought he should have won it. For Massa, it was an emotional comeback after a career treating injury marred his prospects in the last edition of the F1 racing. Meanwhile, Rosberg managed to defeat Schumacher and finish fifth, just one place ahead of the seven time world champion.