Ferrari Face Harder Time in 2003, Says Schumacher

Michael Schumacher fears Ferrari will be less dominant when he targets a record sixth Formula One title next year.

But after the best season in his glamorous Italian team's long and illustrious history, the German expects them to keep on winning anyway.

"I expect next season to be tougher as the other teams get closer," he said after winning Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix to become the first driver to win 11 times in a Championship. "That will be a challenge. I still think we will be in the fight for the titles and winning races but maybe we will not win races so consistently.

"But we don't need to be as dominant as long as we still win."

The most successful Grand Prix driver of all time stands to overtake Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio after matching his five titles in a 2002 season that will go down as a statistician's dream and a promoter's nightmare.

Schumacher has rampaged through the record books, rewriting them with his own name on every page while television viewers in many countries increasingly sought novelty and excitement elsewhere.

The regulations may change before he comes back from his winter holidays, with proposals to ensure the season lasts longer than the first 10 races, but Schumacher said he will not be easing off the throttle.

"I'm still hungry for more," he said.

Most Successful

Title winner with Benetton in 1994 and 1995, he has stayed on the throne since he ended Ferrari's 21-year drought and became their first champion since South African Jody Scheckter in 1979.

Only the late Fangio, between 1954 and 1957, has ever won four titles in a row but many punters will be betting on Schumacher to match that next year. He has won 64 races in his career, 13 more than Frenchman Alain Prost's second highest tally, scored more points than anyone else and served warning on Sunday that retirement remains some way off.

"I will be around for quite a while," he said.

Ferrari won 15 of the 17 rounds this year, matching Prost and Ayrton Senna's 1988 record at McLaren. But sporting director Jean Todt said the team would not be allowed to rest on their laurels.

"We will enjoy this result but tomorrow morning we will continue to think about 2003," he said. "Rest assured that our motivation will be the same as this year's.

"We know that, despite everything that is being said, it will be very difficult because the opposition is very strong, especially those teams who have themselves experienced periods like the one we are going through now."

Williams finished the season as runners-up, raising expectations at the start of the year when Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya finished second in Australia and Ralf Schumacher led a one-two in Malaysia.

The BMW-powered team had to settle for that one victory, despite Montoya seven times starting on pole.

Step Up

Both they and McLaren are working hard to narrow the gap, with Williams already promising to have a more adventurous car next year and their Mercedes-powered rivals planning a big step up on the engine side.

McLaren have said that is likely to mean them starting the first three long-haul races with a development of the old car, as Ferrari did this year, to allow time for engine reliability to be sorted out.

It now seems extraordinary that Schumacher, who on Sunday became the first driver to finish every race on the podium, started 2002 in a version of last year's Ferrari due to reliability concerns.

"None of us would ever have expected we would be so successful," said the 33-year-old.