Schumacher Not Thinking About Retirement

World champion Michael Schumacher has once again insisted that he will not retire from Formula One racing at the end of this season even if he secures his sixth world championship title.

German Schumacher has a contract to stay with Ferrari until the end of 2006 but with his dominance fading, rumours grew that he would quit if he breaks Juan Manuel Fangio's record championship haul this year.

But in preparation for this weekend's United States Grand Prix he insisted: "I am not thinking at all about retiring. I think it will be time for me to go when someone will beat me in a very clear and undisputed way.

"It will happen one day, I'm sure. And on that day, (technical boss) Ross Brawn, (team chief) Jean Todt and to a lesser extent myself will have to say that it's over and we need to choose the people to continue the adventure.

"With four constructors' and three drivers' championship titles, we launched an incredible era for Ferrari and our goal now is to make it last as long as possible."

Schumacher and Ferrari dominated last year's championship so much that the sport's governing body developed a new set of rules in a bid to level the playing field and make the sport more exciting.

It worked and now Schumacher leads the world championship by just three points with two races to go and faces a three-way battle with Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen to keep his crown.

He has won five races this year - including the Italian Grand Prix 12 days ago - but Montoya and Raikkonen are hot on his heels despite winning just two and one Grands Prix respectively.

Montoya is the form man having finished on the podium in every one of the last eight races since his first win of the year at Monaco in June but Schumacher has never finished lower than second at Indianapolis.