The apology, which came via a text message, comes ahead of Barrichello’s 300th career Grand Prix in Belgium. Barrichello came within inches of being forced into the pit wall after Schumacher moved to his right to stop the Williams driver from overtaking. Schumacher said he would also be happy to speak directly to Barrichello. The Mercedes driver defended his actions immediately after the race, although the stewards did not see his point of view as he was handed a 10-place grid penalty for Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix.The worldwide condemnation that followed led to Schumacher expressing his regret the following day, albeit via a message on his personal website, but now the German has apologised directly to the Brazilian. “There were two reasons I sent the text. One of the main reasons is that it is his 300th Grand Prix and we have quite a lot of history together so I thought it was appropriate to congratulate him,” said Schumacher. “[The second reason was to] clarify the point because he sort of felt that I wanted to push him against the wall and very clearly this was not my ambition. “I wanted to race very tightly but without any contact. [I wanted to] clarify that if he felt that this was the case then I was sorry for that.”Barrichello, who raced with the seven-time world champion at Ferrari, confirmed that he had received the message from Schumacher and was happy to move on from the incident and accept the apology. “I received a message from him today [yesterday], an SMS,” said Barrichello. “Somebody said to him that I was under the impression he had pushed me on to the wall, and he said it wasn’t the case and he apologised for that. “I just said ‘thank you, no problem’. I accepted it, wished him a good weekend, life goes on”. ––– BBC.
