Ralf Schumacher has not had a good start to his 2004 season, and last Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix was proof of that, with the German finishing in a disappointing seventh place. What's worse: he was harshly criticised by his boss. Atlas F1's Karl Ludvigsen looks at Ralf's situation and how it can affect his future

Patrick Head isn't known for mincing his words, and that's the way he described Ralf Schumacher's race at Bahrain. "Bloody mess, really," he said to the BBC. "Not good." Juan Pablo Montoya could be excused for his dropping out of the points with steadily decreasing gears, but Ralf's race was a dog's dinner that ended with a reprimand for his slamming of the door on Takuma Sato. And he had the nerve to suggest that it was Sato's fault! Ironically it was Sato later in the race who showed how those corners should be taken during a battle with another driver.

"After all that happened in my race," said the World Champion's younger brother, "I would define my final position as limitation of damages. I'm glad to get the two points but of course it's a bit irritating because I could have made it up on the podium." This reminds me of my "Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda" column after Brazil last year. Just about everybody with any pretensions in the Gulf said that he "could have been on the podium", as if Jenson Button and BAR Honda were usurping their rightful privileges. Ralf's protestations are of little value to a BMW Williams team that came away from Bahrain with a meager (by its standards) haul of two points with one healthy car.

This appalling race couldn't have come at a worse time for Ralf Schumacher. He's very publicly in the throes of negotiations with Williams for a contract extension. As Alan Baldwin reported for Atlas F1, his agent Willi Weber is trying to come up with a new payment formula that will appeal to Frank Williams and Patrick Head. "The fixed payment will be reduced," said Weber. "The bonus point is that if Ralf is doing well, gets on the podium or wins races, then the money increases and will be the same as what we have now."

This can't be very appealing to Ralf - he doesn't seem to be the type who would much like working hard for his money - and frankly I doubt that it will have much appeal to BMW Williams. It's much better to have a clear idea of what your season's budget will be, rather than to have to reckon on random ups and downs. Nor will Frank Williams warm to a driver who needs to be motivated financially. He wants and indeed deserves drivers who race to win, whatever the reward. He must by now - after three crucial flyaway races in 2004 - have concluded that Ralf isn't one of those drivers.

Weber will get some indication of Frank's state of mind in the meeting they've scheduled for the three-week gap before the next race at Imola. The agent was at pains to say that this didn't imply a deadline: "We just said we must draw a line to speak together because Ralf wants to know what is going on in the future," he said. "Even after Hungary is enough time." My guess is that Frank Williams will let the next several meetings go by without giving a firm indication of his feelings about Ralf. The pressure for a resolution is all on the driver, not on the team.

Is that too strong a statement? Does Ralf still represent value to the team for which he's won six races? My guess is that he's worn out his welcome with his petulance and pettiness. Head and Williams must be fed up to the teeth with him by now. But they're in no rush to make that crystal clear. Ralf would represent reasonable value to another team, so they have to strategize to put him in a position where serious contenders among those teams - like Renault and Toyota - will decide to look elsewhere. And they still want to get as much as they can from him in 2004.

Not that Ralf Schumacher himself hasn't been doing his best to discourage the interest of other major teams. His fourth-place finish in Australia flattered his actual performance, while he was mooching along in near-invisibility at Malaysia when his engine let go. Ralf is still seen as lacking the moxie to make a mean overtaking move, something I suppose he was trying to deny when he tackled Takuma in Bahrain. After his race in the Gulf, would you be eager to hire him? Even on Weber's new cut-price terms? The answer has to be in the negative.

Renault doesn't need to look elsewhere. With the Briatore farm system in operation it has access to an excellent driver cadre. Toyota's picture is less clear. Right now it's a drivers' dead end, but with Mike Gascoyne aboard the outlook for 2005 has to be better. If I were a top driver, I'd be interested. But Toyota must surely see Ralf Schumacher as a driver who has reached his peak and is now struggling - in an unseemly way - to stay there. The only plus for them would be his German nationality in a Cologne-based team. That's not enough.

Nor will being German be enough to keep Ralf on board at BMW Williams. "We are after the best driver regardless of nationality," BMW's Dr Mario Theissen made clear recently. If they were interested in a German speaker there's a new kid on the block, Christian Klien, who's going to be attracting a lot of attention. The young Austrian was excitingly racy at Bahrain. He looks like the kind of driver who would appeal to Williams and Head. Jaguar feels that it has a lock on Klien, but that would easily be picked if BMW Williams were to knock on Mister Klien's door.

As for Ralf? His career is in trouble. Last year I said that "Williams would be crazy to break up this pairing" of drivers, who seemed ideal to take them to 2009. But the pairing is already broken up, with Montoya's planned move, so they should go for a completely fresh line-up. Will the younger Schumacher find another Formula One slot? At any price? I have my doubts. We'll miss you...Cora.

About the author:
Long time columnist at Atlas F1, Karl Ludvigsen is an award-winning author and historian who managed racing programs for Fiat in America in the late 1970s and Ford of Europe in the early 1980s. He is the author of seven books about racing drivers and numerous books about classic racing cars and engines, all of which draw extensively on the many images in his Ludvigsen Library in Suffolk, England.

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