Don’t write Ralf off – Heidfeld
That was the insistence on Thursday of BMW-Sauber's Nick Heidfeld, who said it is too simple to dismiss his countryman's crisis at the wheel of the current Toyota as evidence that he is no longer a world-class driver.
"I hope he is still around next year," Heidfeld told reporters in Montreal.
"It is obvious that he is having problems with his car, but he has won six grands prix and done a lot of other very good races.
"To be honest I used to think that you are either a fast driver or a slow driver, but over the years I have learned that sometimes you can have some difficult moments. So I can understand that, yes."
Nevertheless, the speculation surrounding 31-year-old Schumacher's future at present refuses to go away; such as the apparent suggestion of an 'ultimatum' that he either improve or be dumped following F1's North American double header.
Predictably at Canada's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Thursday, Ralf dismissed all the rumors as "rubbish".
Clearer, however, is Heidfeld's future, even though he has yet to put pen to paper on a new BMW contract to extend his stay beyond 2007.
But he said in Montreal: "At the moment everything between us is running very smoothly.
"Both sides, BMW and I, have confirmed that we would gladly continue with one another, so I don't think that anything is going to get in the way of that."