Hill: Schumacher needs to pull out stops

Damon Hill believes old adversary Michael Schumacher will need to pull out all the stops this year if he is to prove himself worthy of a new deal with Mercedes.

Schumacher is now into the final year of a three-season contract he signed with the German manufacturer upon his return to Formula One at the start of 2010 after three years in retirement.

There is no guarantee the 43-year-old will even want to continue beyond this season, but if he does 1996 world champion Hill knows he cannot afford to languish again behind team-mate Nico Rosberg.

In 2010 Schumacher finished 70 points adrift of Rosberg, although last year he closed that gap down to 13 as he showed glimpses of the driver that made him a seven-time champion.

Assessing the battle and year ahead for Schumacher, Hill said: "It's unbelievable he's still going, whilst I've been retired for 12 years.

"He's an extraordinary performer who clearly loves his driving and doesn't want to stop. I can understand that.

"But Formula One cannot carry people along if they are not doing their bit. He's going to have to fight with everything he's got to keep going for another year, or beyond this one."

As far as Hill is concerned, with the 51-year-old due to become an expert F1 summariser for Sky Sports for this season, it will all boil down to Schumacher versus Rosberg.

"First of all he has to prove he is quicker than his team-mate," added Hill.

"Of course, the contribution a guy like Michael can make is enormous because of his experience, but eventually it really comes down to whether you are the quickest guy in the team.

"The competition in Formula One is not just driver against driver across all the teams, it is intensely between the two drivers in the same team.

"Your career will depend on how you compare, so in a sense Nico would do better to have some comparison with a more contemporary driver because people are not sure of the pace Michael now has."

But Hill, the former president of the British Racing Drivers' Club, knows Schumacher can never be written off.

"The mistake I suppose I've made, and a lot of people have made, has been to underestimate Michael," said Hill.

"Nobody thought it was possible for someone to break [Juan Manuel] Fangio's tally of [five] titles, but he went and completely blitzed that.

"So he thinks differently to most of us, and I guess it will be a case of 'watch this space'."