Ralf to take $17m pay-cut for 2008

(GMM) Ralf Schumacher has agreed to slash his annual salary if it means he can keep his seat at Toyota in 2008.

The embattled German, who has conspicuously failed to live up to his reportedly (US) $22m retainer this year, has offered to drive for under $5m for the coming season, the newspaper Munich TZ claimed.

Supplementing his income would be a whopping bonus of $340,000 per point in 2008, should Toyota officials accept the offer made in recent days by 32-year-old Schumacher's manager Hans Mahr.

Meanwhile, the German gossip magazine Bunte reports that Ralf's wife Cora is pregnant and expecting their second child in early 2008.

She also defended her husband, saying: "Ralf can only do as much as his car will allow. With a competitive machine he is one of the world's best drivers, as he proved regularly with BMW."