Manager Says Schumacher Staying with Ferrari

Michael Schumacher will stay with Ferrari and should be racing until he is 40, his manager, Willi Weber, was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

"Every manager lives from good contracts and we have one with Ferrari which runs until 2002 and will be respected," Weber told weekly Sport Bild.

Weber said he would then consider any offer for his driver, adding Schumacher, now 31, should carry on racing for another nine years.

"Michael regards 40 as the age limit for Grand Prix racing, not only as far as his own career is concerned," Weber said.

The German's manager said he was confident Schumacher, whose championship lead over McLaren's David Coulthard is six points before Sunday's German Grand Prix, would win his third world title this year.

"I don't see any crisis," Weber said. "I think Michael will set the record straight by winning at Hockenheim and then in Budapest.

"It gets tougher year after year and pressure keeps growing but this year we're in with a title chance and Michael will not let it slip away," he added.