Boris Becker (pictured right) has joined a growing list of great retired sportsmen in warning Michael Schumacher to expect a tough transition from his cockpit to normal life.

The German tennis great, who retired in 1999, joins Michael Jordan, Mika Hakkinen and Niki Lauda in telling Schumacher that life away from a sportsman’s passion is not easy.

“I don’t know a single sportsman who made the transition smoothly,” Becker, who is just a year older than 37-year-old Schumacher, said.

“Over the next six months or so he will ask himself many times if he made the right decision or not.”

Mika Hakkinen, Schumacher’s toughest Grand Prix rival between 1998 and 2000, was in Sao Paulo at the weekend to witness the great German’s last race.

The Finn said he retired in 2001 because he was ‘tired’.

“But I came back (to racing) because it is in our blood. After I stopped all those years of travel and stress, my batteries recharged and I had the desire again.”

Hakkinen said in Brazil: “We are racers. We can’t live without it and Michael is the same. I can’t say when and where, but he will race again.”

[GMM]