Michael Schumacher’s return to the driver’s seat has left him eating dust

Remember the word “fahrvergnügen” that German carmaker Volkswagen once used in its advertising? Loosely translated, it means “driving pleasure.”

Well, seven-time Formula One champion and German driver Michael Schumacher isn’t feeling much fahrvergnügen these days.

When Schumacher announced in December that he would emerge from retirement to race again in Formula One this year, it set the international racing series on its ear.

Here was the great Schumi, 41 and three years removed from competition, back to give Formula One’s younger drivers a much tougher time of it. Plus, he would drive for Mercedes GP, the team formerly called Brawn GP that had won the world championship with Jensen Button in 2009.

Instead, Schumacher has been mired in mediocrity in his return.

At Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix, Schumacher finished 11th, meaning he didn’t score any championship points — the third time that’s happened in the series’ first eight races this season.

One reason Schumacher finished out of the points Sunday was because he was passed on the final lap by Vitantonio Liuzzi and Adrian Sutil, who drive for the lackluster Force India team.

Schumacher has rarely has been in a position to win a race. He’s finished fourth twice — at Spain and Turkey — but those were his only top-five finishes.

In five of the races, he’s finished 10th or worse, and Schumacher is now ninth in the championship standings with a meager 34 points, 75 points behind leader Lewis Hamilton of McLaren, who won Sunday’s race at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve track in Montreal.

Schumacher’s Canadian race was marred by various problems, including contact with other cars— most notably with the Renault of Robert Kubica.

Although he started in 13th, Schumacher was third after 11 laps that included a chaotic start. But “then I had a puncture on the front right tire after my first pit stop, after I got together with Kubica, and that obviously decided my race,” Schumacher said. “From there, I was stuck in traffic and there was nothing more to do because today our weapons were not very sharp.”

The more pressing matter is how sharp Schumacher’s weapons will be for the rest of the season, and for the next 2½ years. Schumacher signed a three-year contract to drive for Mercedes.

Schumacher’s problems resurrect the old question of whether it’s mostly the driver or the machine (or racing luck) that ultimately makes the biggest difference in motor sports.

It’s possible that Schumacher still has the driving skills, but not the cars, to reach the front and stay there. After all, Red Bull’s Mark Webber toiled for years with little to show for it. But once his team developed competitive cars, the Australian won twice in 2009 and twice more this year, with back-to-back wins in Spain and Monaco.

Mercedes racing executive Norbert Haug said that in the Canadian race Sunday, “without the [tire] puncture, Michael could certainly have achieved a respectable result.” But Schumacher is about more than respectable results; he’s about being arguably the best Formula One driver in history.

Now he’s at a crossroads. Schumacher either can add to his legend, if he and Mercedes pick up their game, or he risks becoming one more in a list of remarkable athletes who — unable to leave the sport they once dominated — stayed too long as they made one final attempt to burnish their place in the record books.

Hamlin’s momentum

The Denny Hamlin express could keep rolling through Sonoma wine country this weekend when the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series holds the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at the Infineon Raceway road course.

Hamlin, who notched his series-high fifth win of the season Sunday at Michigan International Speedway, showed last year that he’s getting better maneuvering his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota around the twisty, hilly Infineon circuit.

The Virginian led 33 laps in last year’s race before finishing fifth behind winner Kasey Kahne. It was Hamlin’s first top-five finish in four races at Sonoma. Kahne, in turn, hopes to defend his victory after finishing second to Hamlin on Sunday.

james.peltz@latimes.com