Schumacher Surprised at His Own Success

World Champion Michael Schumacher has admitted he has been surprised at his own success this year and put his achievements down to the sensational F2002 car Ferrari have created for him.

"There's no question that the start of the season has been surprisingly successful for us," said Schumacher. "We've certainly achieved more than we'd hoped for at this stage."

The dominant German has won four of the five Grands Prix so far and has already suggested he could go on to claim a record number of victories this season and added: "In my opinion, one reason for this is that we've been able to drive to win even on circuits which don't suit us so well.

"Our engineers constructed a brilliant car this winter, which they've been able to improve even since the season started. I'd actually thought there couldn't be a better car than last year's."

But Schumacher, 21 points ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya in the standings, continues to insist that the Championship is not over yet, and denied he is using "deliberate pessimism" to hide his true feelings about the Championship's destination.

"It won't be over for a long time," he said. "I can only keep repeating this, even though I can naturally see for myself that we've been dominant recently. Last year in Austria we also saw how good the Michelins were.

"I think that if they're again more consistent the next race could be a near thing."