Formula 1: Schumacher out to end Austrian drought

Michael Schumacher is out to end his Austrian drought this weekend and increase his world championship stranglehold.

The A1-Ring at Zeltweg is the only circuit on the current Formula One calendar where Germany’s three-time world beater is yet to taste victory.

Schumacher’s best result in three races since the revamped venue returned to the schedule was third in 1998.

The 32-year-old was sixth in 1997 and was involved in a first lap collision last year, having missed the race in 1999 as he recovered from the broken leg he suffered at Silverstone.

Schumacher, who leads the championship by eight points, insists his failure to win is not down to a dislike of the track or his Ferrari’s lack of competitiveness.

‘‘It is simply because of circumstances,’’ said Schumacher, who has won three of the opening five races this season and is just four adrift of Alain Prost’s all-time record of 51 victories.

‘‘You cannot win every race and Austria didn’t exist (on the schedule) for many years. We have had some bad luck like last year.

‘‘We don’t look at the race in a way that we haven’t won it and now desperately want to win it.

‘‘We always want to win any race we can and want to do as well as we can.’’

Schumacher opened up his lead in the championship from David Coulthard with a lucky win in Spain last week after the Scot’s McLaren team-mate Mika Hakkinen was cruelly denied victory.

Hakkinen was left facing a challenge as high as the Styrian mountains, the spectacular backdrop to Sunday’s race, as his gearbox exploded just half a lap from home.

The Finn is 32 points adrift but, with only a third of the season over, Schumacher insists Hakkinen will be a bigger threat than Coulthard.

‘‘Mika was never gone,’’ said Schumacher of Hakkinen’s continuing challenge.

‘‘As I have always said the main rivalry will be between him and me.

‘‘With 12 races still to go everything is still possible. If you look at the points situation we have to look and see what happens in the next few races.’’

Schumacher had seen his challenge in Barcelona undermined by tyre vibration trouble, having also been hit by reliability problems at the previous race in San Marino.

But after a test session on Ferrari’s private test track at Fiorano last week, the reigning champion is confident his car will be back to its reliable best this weekend.

‘‘What happened in Barcelona was a simple situation, I think we can solve that very quickly,’’ he added.

‘‘It was nothing to do with what happened at Imola. I am pretty confident that we should not see this any more.’’