Berger: 'Ralf won't have lost it'

Former BMW motorsport director Gerhard Berger believes Ralf Schumacher will return to the cockpit as motivated as ever despite his horrific accident at Indianapolis last month. The Williams driver fractured two of his vertebrae in the smash and was given a lengthy 8-12 weeks recovery time

Schumacher has been forced to miss the last two races at Magny-Cours and Silverstone and will also miss the next round at Hockenheim. The German believes he could be fit enough for the Hungarian GP on August 15 although this is seen by many to be overly-optimistic.

Whenever Schumacher does make his comeback, Berger reckons he'll be just as quick as he was before. The Austrian draws on his own personal experience having missed the Monaco GP in 1989 after hitting the wall at Tamburello in the San Marino GP and sitting in a blaze of flames for half a minute. Berger sustained injuries severe enough to count him out of the Monaco race but he was keen to return to the cockpit as soon as possible and he thinks Schumacher will feel exactly the same.

"It's true that I wasn't as venturesome after Imola as I had been prior to the accident," Berger told the Williams website. "But whenever I was involved in an accident, I tried to return behind the wheel as fast as possible to take the car it to its very limits once again.

"Ralf won't have lost it, he will return as the driver he has been before," said Berger. "I don't think that his injuries have been that serious that he won't be as fast and competitive as he has been prior to his accident. As a former racing driver, I'd recommend him to return into the cockpit as fast as possible, inter alia to get rid of the fear."

Schumacher has been replaced by reserve driver Marc Gene in both the French and British Grands Prix. It is not yet known who will take his spot at the German Grand Prix on July 25 with Jordan's Nick Heidfeld set to test the FW26 at Jerez on Friday with a view of taking the race seat at Hockenheim.