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After Michael Schumacher retired people were skeptical about Ferrari. After all Schumacher was a seven time Formula One champion. But people are worried that Ferrari will lose its status and drop dramatically. 

After five races this season, Ferrari has 56 points in the constructors’ championship on the strength of three race wins, two by Felipe Massa of Brazil and another by Kimi Raikkonen of Finland. The team is second in the championship standings, trailing McLaren by 20 points entering this weekend’s 39th Grand Prix of Canada.

After five races last year, Ferrari had 46 points, with two wins, both by Schumacher, and arrived at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve trailing Renault by 16 points. Ferrari is confident coming into Montreal following its considerably less-than-stellar performance in Monaco two weeks ago, where Massa settled for a distant third behind the two McLarens.

“Ferrari will win in Canada,” Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo told Italy’s ANSA news agency last week. “We are recovering (from Monaco) because we are working day and night.” Schumacher officially announced his retirement last Sept. 10 at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, where the then-37-year-old native of Hurth-Hermuhleim, Germany, won the race for the sixth time in his career.

Later in October, Schumacher was appointed assistant to Ferrari chief executive officer Jean Todt, formerly the team’s general manager. At the time, Todt said the team was “eager to utilize Michael’s knowledge and expertise for our technical and strategic needs”, but that it would not be necessary for him to be at the team’s factory or attend test sessions and races.

Nevertheless, Schumacher has attended a couple of races and will be at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve this weekend, says his personal assistant, Sabine Kehm. Schumacher is expected to limit his time at the island track that he has claimed was not among his favourites - but at which he won a record seven times, anyway.

“He likes spending time in North America, so going to Montreal will be an opportunity for him, especially with the U.S. Grand Prix” next weekend, Kehm said. Schumacher was in Monaco and before that Barcelona to see Massa win for the second time this season.

By all accounts, Schumacher is enjoying retirement. He’s been spending a great deal of time with wife Corinna and their two children, vacationing for the most part. He’s also been supervising the construction of a new family home near Lake Geneva on the mountainous border of Switzerland and France.

Schumacher says his new job with the team is as an observer more than anything, but he has yet to reveal what are his specific tasks, if any. “I’m here to help if I can. I will be wherever I am needed to be,” he was quoted as saying on Telegraph.co.uk.

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