Williams Would Like to Sign Schumacher

Team boss Frank Williams believes World Champion Michael Schumacher is the best racing driver in history and has admitted that he would still like to sign him for Williams in the future.

Schumacher, who has won the World Championship five times in the last nine years, has put his name to the top of almost every record list since he joined Formula One in 1991. After two titles with Benetton, Schumacher's link-up with Ferrari, which began in 1996, has led to three World Championships and a record number of Grands Prix victories.

"I rather wish he would go away sometimes but I have come to the conclusion this season that he is the best motor racing driver there has ever been," said Williams. "He is the complete package. He is a brilliant driver and a phenomenally hard worker. He has got just about everything.

"He is still the best one there. I say that happily and not grudgingly. The sun is not about to set on him."

Schumacher dominated last year's World Championship as he won 11 times but he has taken just three wins from the first seven races of the 2003 season and is second in the Championship behind McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen.

He is signed to Ferrari until the end of next season but Williams told Britain's Daily Mirror: "I would still like to have Michael as a Williams driver sometime in the future. It is an ambition, not a dream.

"But my hunch is he will step out of Ferrari into obscurity, if he can find it. I understand his contract runs out at the end of next season but all the signals are that they are trying to keep the current team together until the end of 2006."