Highlights

Last race is business as usual, says Schumacher

(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-10-20 09:31

The lump in the throat, the emotional farewells can wait as far as Michael Schumacher is concerned.

The Ferrari great says he is treating the last race of his record-breaking Formula One career in Brazil this weekend as "business as usual".

Schumacher bows out at Interlagos on Sunday with a real chance of a 92nd career victory and, if he does that and Renault's Fernando Alonso fails to score, an unprecedented eighth title.

The German's exit from a stage he has dominated like no other and for so many years hangs over the weekend, overshadowing even the championship outcome.

Yet the most successful driver in the history of the sport said on Thursday that he was focused entirely on the race ahead.

"At the moment I'm not thinking so much about it," the 37-year-old told a news conference, when asked about his emotions on the eve of his last race.

"Occasionally it comes up and you feel a bit strange about it but in general I'm pretty relaxed," he added. "It's pretty much business as usual so far. So we can deal with this race as a normal one."

He posed for photographers, giving a thumbs-up with Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa, and smiled at the occasional off-beat question -- such as how he would feel if he woke up transformed into former team mate Rubens Barrichello.

The German rubbed his eyes at that suggestion, but was otherwise the same old Schumacher.

FUTURE LIFE

Alonso is 10 points clear, with both men having seven wins each this season after the German's engine blew while he was leading at the last race in Japan. Renault are nine ahead of Ferrari.

"I am not coming here this weekend to think too much about my own title," said Schumacher.

"I am coming here for the constructors' title. I have expressed after the Suzuka race that the title fight for the drivers' is finished.

"I don't want to build up my hopes on somebody retiring...I I am just here to do a good race and try to win."

What he does after that is anyone's guess.

"What is going to be my life afterwards, I don't know," he said. "I've said many times that I don't feel like I should know, because I'm in the fortunate position that I can retire and don't have to have a vision for my life afterwards.

"I have plenty of time to make my vision, live a life where something will come up that will interest me.

"I am completely relaxed and completely sure about it. What that will be, I don't know. Life offers plenty of opportunities and I look forward to those."

Schumacher, one of the world's highest paid athletes with estimated annual earnings of around $50 million, can look forward to more time with his wife and young family in Switzerland away from the media glare.

He is likely to take on an as yet undefined role with Ferrari, either as an ambassador for the Italian glamour team or in a more hands-on team role. Whatever he does, a racing comeback is not on the cards.

He also has no second thoughts about retirement, a decision announced after he won Ferrari's home Italian Grand Prix at Monza last month.

"I cannot see to be strong enough in the future to get the energy you need to be strong enough," he said. "It needs a lot of motivation, a lot of dedication and I just feel the battery is empty."