Schumacher still driven

Michael Schumacher admits Ferrari may take their time to return to the top of Formula One, but has brushed aside fresh retirement talk by vowing to be there when they do.

The world champion has suffered his worst start ever to a Formula One season as Ferrari struggle with new regulations and he arrives at Indianapolis for the United States Grand Prix 25 points behind championship leader Fernando Alonso.

That has prompted new speculation over his future, with brother Ralf suggesting the 36-year-old could quit this year, 12 months before his Ferrari contract runs out.

But Schumacher will not discuss retirement and instead remains focussed on dragging Ferrari back to the front – a task he admits will take time.

Schumacher said: “The most important thing is to know that it’s Formula One, it’s a very high level of competition.

“Everyone wants to win. We have been winning for the last six years and at some stage you have to accept that someone else can do a better job.

“But it’s our motivation and challenge to come back and I am so confident on that, I have no doubt about that, it just may take a little bit longer.”

The seven-time world champion concedes he has no goals left to achieve in Formula One but has no plans to hang up his helmet yet, responding to Ralf’s claims by saying: “I don’t know where he gets that from.”

He added: “As long as I’m competitive and people are happy to see me I will keep going. I just want to enjoy it as long as I can enjoy it.

“I only enjoy it when I am competitive. I feel competitive still and as long as this is the case I will keep on.

“The main target was achieved in 2000 when the first championship was achieved with Ferrari, that was so outstanding for all of us to achieve this goal.

“Ever since everything that arrived after that has been just a bonus. I am not targeting anything in particular except running, enjoying and getting support.”

Schumacher has a proud record to defend at Indianapolis, with three wins from five races, and he retains hope of adding another triumph to that list despite Ferrari’s difficulties.

The German admits that difficulties over one lap in qualifying have forced his team to compromise but as he lapped up cheers from hundreds of vociferous American fans he was able to dream of victory.

“If I listen to the support we should do it,” he said. “There should not be any question of that.

“As you have seen lately we are struggling a little bit, we have not been all the way competitive.

“As usual we will try our best. We are pushing very hard to get the car back as competitive as we had in the past, last year in particular.

“But competition is tough, those teams are doing a great job and it’s difficult to beat them at the moment.

“We definitely want to win – there is no doubt about that. We have made more improvements to the car, to the tyres. It’s such a fine line, you can tip over one way or the other very easily.”