Schumacher Warns of Ferrari Comeback

As he heads into his winter break after a disappointing 2005 campaign, the German believes the fact that Renault and McLaren were able to leapfrog ahead of his team this year actually bodes well for the future.

"This surely was not a season that we can be proud of, and the fact that we came in third in both championship rankings does not really reflect our performance," he said. "But now we can fully concentrate on next year, and our only ambition can be to fight for the title once again.

"When you consider how well we did last year, and that the other teams were able to be so far ahead of us in terms of performance this year, then the conclusion would be that we should also be able to be among the best in 2006. We'll work hard for that over the winter, that's our goal."

Despite the struggles he has faced this year, and a disastrous final race in China where he was involved in a crash on the way to the grid and then spun out of the race, Schumacher claims his motivation has not been dented at all.

"Lots of people have asked me how long it takes for me to regain my passion for driving after a screwed up season like this - that's easy: I'm even more passionate about racing after a season like this," he explained.

"It makes you want to fight and be among the best even more. You can't forget that even though there were many reasons to be disappointed this year, there was no reason whatsoever to be disappointed in any of our people. Our team is and always will be great.

"You really have to tip your hat to all our workers at the track and the factory, they worked ever so hard all year and never let anything discourage them. So therefore I'm optimistic for next year, because you can do no wrong with this crew. There's a new challenge ahead of us and we're all looking forward to it."