Schumacher Expecting Harder Competition

World Champion Michael Schumacher is convinced his rivals will do a much better job this season than they did last year, when the German Ferrari driver clinched his fifth world title in record-breaking time and with six races of the Championship remaining.

The 34-year-old German won an unprecedented 11 of 17 races last year to claim a record-equalling fifth world title and third in succession. Despite his dominance, Schumacher denied suggestions that the sport had become simply too easy for him to dominate.

"Listen, my career has been 12 years in Formula One and I have had one year where it might have been a bit easy," Schumacher said today, ahead of the season opening Australian Grand Prix. "It's a tenth of my career so I'm quite happy to have a little time like that.

"It will automatically become harder because other teams hadn't done a great job last year, and I am pretty sure they will do a much better job this year and therefore competition will become harder."