Hamburg, Dec 24 (DPA) Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher is to come out of retirement to race for Mercedes GP, the Formula One team confirmed Wednesday.
Schumacher, who had quit the sport in 2006, will make his debut with the new team on March 14 at the Bahrain Grand Prix, the opening race of the 2010 season.

Schumacher said he had agreed to a three-year deal with the Silver Arrows team alongside Nico Rosberg in an all-German driver line-up and was “totally fired up” for a return to racing.

Explaining why he had decided to end a three-year absence from racing, Schumacher said the idea of a German F1 team “extremely tempts me”, while working together with team principal Ross Brawn again also played a major role.

“Above all, however, my old hunger for racing is back,” he said on his website.

The announcement comes 11 days ahead of Schumacher’s 41st birthday Jan 3, making him easily the oldest driver in next year’s championship.

The signing also came a day after Mercedes GP announced a long-term agreement with Malaysian national oil and gas company Petronas.

Schumacher had planned a comeback with Ferrari in the summer after Felipe Massa was sidelined following a crash, but doctors declared him unfit to race following a motorcycle accident earlier in the year.

He said he was now fully fit and had decided on a return after receiving a call from team principal Ross Brawn at the beginning of November asking him to race again with Mercedes.

“In Abu Dhabi (at the last Grand Prix of 2009), when Ross asked me if I could imagine returning to F1, I felt that I wasn’t ready for it. But only two weeks later, when he called me once again, I realized that my old passion was returning,” he said.

“Suddenly I was on fire again. For me, the imagination to be back in a F1 car and to compete for the world championships is exciting and extremely inspiring.”

Schumacher said until recently he was absolutely sure he had ended his racing career.

“But sometimes things change suddenly and unexpectedly. All of a sudden, the framework conditions aren’t the same anymore,” he said.