World champion Michael Schumacher added another stripe to his well-decorated cap after clocking up his seventh world title in Belgium on Sunday.
The 35-year-old German driver, who made his formula-one debut at the forested Spa-Francorchamps track about 13 years ago, has made the sport his own since he joined Ferrari in 1996 and helped develop their dream team.
And although an unfamiliar second place in the Belgian Grand Prix slightly dampened the perfectionist’s celebration of his fifth consecutive world title, his domination this season has already proved he is one of a kind.
Despite failing to win, Schumacher still scored enough points to clinch his seventh formula-one drivers’ title.
He has won 12 of the 14 races so far with a run of metronomic performances that has seen him fail to finish just once in the last 27 races when he crashed out in Monaco in May.
From Melbourne to Malaysia, Montreal to Magny Cours, come rain or shine, Schumacher has been virtually unstoppable ever since he declared he would be winning for fun this season.
”The good thing is that it is always different,” said Schumacher. ”I mean, whatever you achieve I’ve found you always have different emotions and certainly what I feel today is difficult to put into words.
”It doesn’t feel anywhere what I have felt at the sixth or the fifth time. We are here in Spa, which does mean a lot to me, the circuit, the place, and to clinch the seventh title at the 700th Grand Prix for Ferrari is very special.”
Schumacher has taken 82 race victories and 62 pole positions in a career that has spanned 208 races with Jordan, Benetton and Ferrari but his greatest success has come in scarlet cars.
In the record books, his name has already topped Argentine great Juan Manuel Fangio, who had won the most world crowns with five in the 1950s, and French legend Alain Prost, who was top of the pile for race wins with 51 in his career.
He could top late Brazilian hero Ayrton Senna’s record of 65 career pole positions by the end of the year as he needs four more with four races remaining. If not, he should do so next year.
Statistics, he says, mean nothing to him but he cannot have failed to notice his dominance this season has been the most impressive by a single driver in the entire history of the formula-one world championship.
In 1988, Senna and Prost together secured 15 race wins out of 16 for their McLaren-Honda team but they were made to share their success. Schumacher has taken it all himself.
He has already broken his previous record of 11 wins in a season, set in 2002, which itself surpassed his own previous best of nine, which he set in 1995, 2000 and 2001 and shared with Briton Nigel Mansell.
His teammate, Rubens Barrichello, has not been able to touch him this season but has helped take Ferrari to greatness and has had a hand in assisting Schumacher’s success.
And Schumacher, who together with Barrichello helped Ferrari seal their sixth constructors’ title in Hungary two weeks ago, added: ”I’m just very proud to have achieved this together with the team, which I think is extraordinary.
”It is what makes us strong and it is just a fantastic moment to celebrate and to feel … it doesn’t need a lot of emotional outbreak, its important what I think and what I feel and that is good feelings. They are so great.” — Sapa-AFP