Schumacher: Jerez 1997 biggest regret

Schumacher turned in on Villeneuve at the hairpin at Jerez in a bid to take them both out of the race, what would have handed the German what would then have been his third world championship title.

The move failed and, not only did Villeneuve go on to take the crown, but Schumacher was stripped of his runner-up position in the title chase because of his actions.

Looking back on his career in a lengthy interview with German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung on Friday, Schumacher admitted that that botched move would be the one thing he would like to change about his time in F1.

"If there were a situation in my career which I could undo, it would be this," he said in the interview.

Speaking about his decision to not attend the funeral of Ayrton Senna in 1994, an action at the time that was heavily criticised, Schumacher has revealed that he missed the event because he was pondering his own F1 future at the time.

He said that he needed instead to test because he had to be sure that he wanted to remain in F1. He added that he did not want to show his emotions in public at the time - instead saving them for a private visit to Senna's grave later on.

"I had been in motor racing for 20 years already and I had never had a bad experience," said Schumacher, looking back to Imola 1994.

"On that weekend died not only Senna, but also Roland Ratzenberger. I argued with myself very intensively about the deaths of the two men and asked: 'what did F1 and racing still mean to me?'

"That was why, at the time, I went not to Ayrton's funeral, but to testing. I had to know whether I could drive on, whether the sport still held joy for me.

"In addition I did not want to mourn publicly. I was later alone at Ayrton's grave, with (wife) Corinna."