F1: the slow decline of an icon

The recent Turkish Grand Prix was a watershed moment for Schumacher. In the past, nothing more than his presence would make other drivers move over so he could overtake or follow him around, unwilling to take him on in a straight dice.

But no more: an increasingly desperate Schumacher, outpaced by his junior team-mate in almost all races and qualifying sessions since they formed the new driver line-up at Mercedes after the departure of Button and Barrichello (who had the misfortune, it seems, to hold the wrong passports), was wild and aggressive to the point of brutality. If he could not hold of a faster car by pace or skill, he drove into it. It was a dismal display of the very worst of a driver whose career has been marred by bad conduct.

It's not the car: his team-mate Rosberg hustles an identical vehicle up the grid and through the field.

Worse, his reputation is not keeping him safe: the young guns who have come into F1 since he glory days never raced the Schumacher that fans want to remember. He has gone from hero to target. Indeed, so many of the younger racers have now passed him that there is no longer any evident glee from them in doing so.

How much Schumacher can contribute to the team remains open to question: with more than a season of his input, it's Rosberg who handles the product with more success. It's not his age, per se. He remains supremely fit and when he gets out of a car at the end of the race, he does not show signs that he found it harder than anyone else.

Its simply that the desire to drive every turn of the wheels right on the limit has gone and with it the fire to win - but not to win at all costs. Schumacher has had his day. Ross Brawn knows it, Rosberg knows it, the fans know it and Schumacher knows it. The thing that is keeping him in F1 now is simple: his face on billboards can still sell cars and the cult that is MS remains vital in many markets.

Whether that cult remains enough to keep him in an F1 car until the end of the season remains to be seen: and who makes the decision if he does step out is by no means certain.