Brawn: who knows if Schuey can be even better?

The German's win in Sunday's French GP was the 50th of his career and his sixth of the season. If he wins the British GP in two weeks' time, the Ferrari ace would then take the record beyond Prost's benchmark with a victory at his home race in Hockenheim on July 29.

Schumacher recently signed a contract extension with Ferrari that will keep him at the Prancing Horse until the end of the 2004 season. But Brawn says it is difficult to say how much better - if at all - the 32-year old can still get.

"I hope he can get better!" quipped the Englishman. "No, he's very, very good. We spoke the other day about the fact that people are asking whether he was there (at the top of his game), and I think we'll only know he's there when he goes down the other side, and there's absolutely no sign of that.

"He drove a faultless race (in France)," he added. "It was another masterful performance."

On his 2001 'wins to starts' hit rate of 60 percent, Brawn is hopeful that Schumacher can take the title before the final round.

"It would be nice to have the job finished before the end of the season," he said. "It would be great because we could approach the last few races just a little bit more relaxed from that side.

"But then we all know how quickly things can turn round. But we're not taking any chances, and everyone's staying on the case very intently for the rest of the season."

The record for the most Grand Prix victories in a single season is nine, held jointly by Nigel Mansell and Schumacher himself (twice, including last season). The German has seven more races to move that record into double figures.