FORMULA ONE - F1: Schumi’s Return Draws Huge Ratings, Media Scorn

Formula 1

F1: Schumi’s Return Draws Huge Ratings, Media Scorn

Michael Schumacher's first race in F1 since 2006 Sunday wasn't exactly welcomed everywhere...

SPEED Staff / GMM | Posted March 15, 2010 GMM Newswire

Michael Schumacher finished sixth in his first Grand Prix since 2006 Sunday. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Michael Schumacher's return to formula one on Sunday was welcomed in his homeland, but drew press scorn in Italy

German broadcaster RTL said an average of more than 10 million German viewers - a market share in excess of 50 percent - tuned in to watch the seven time world champion finish the 2010 season opener in sixth place.

The average German audience in Bahrain last year was a little over 5 million.

But Saturday's German TV viewers were very unhappy after Schumacher's decisive qualifying lap in 'Q3' was not shown.

"Michael Schumacher's onboard camera was unfortunately not working," a spokesman for Formula One Management told Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

Meanwhile, the Italian press poured scorn on the return.

The 41-year-old German, whose previous race had been at the wheel of a Ferrari in 2006, isn’t exactly well liked in Italy.

Large elements of Italy saw Schumacher's decision to return with a rival team as an act of deceit, and the Genoa-based Il Secolo XIX newspaper called him the "world champion of arrogance".

La Gazzetta dello Sport joked that the German failed to turn up in the island Kingdom, and Corriere della Sera said the anonymous performance had been a "strange Sunday afternoon for Herr Michael".

As for Schumacher, he said he was happy with his comeback, and Mercedes' chief executive Nick Fry said the team's new driver had finished the event "in great spirits" and excellent physical shape.

"All in all I have to say I am very, very happy and proud about how it went, considering I was completely out for three years and did not have a lot of driving for preparation," Schumacher wrote on his official website Monday.