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Right up there

Once in a long while, in the world of sport, there comes a champion who possesses such a powerful combination of attributes — skill, courage, technique, reflexes, mental attitude, physical fitness — that even the most competitive and talented among his rivals slowly reconcile themselves to the fact that they have no hope of catching up with him. Michael Schumacher is one such. A man with a bull's neck and a freakishly low resting pulse rate, a champion with an ascetic lifestyle who can control a car with astonishing precision at the very edge, 37-year-old Schumi is indisputably among the greatest drivers the sport has seen. A record seven championships — two more than the legendary Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio — attests to as much. The German superstar's announcement that he will retire at the end of the season has left many motor sports lovers despondent. Yet, as with most things he has done, Schumacher has timed the big move to perfection. After a poor 2005 season — by his exacting standards — he staged a remarkable comeback. The victory in the Italian Grand Prix last Sunday was Schumacher's 90th — another world record — and he is just two points behind the reigning champion and leader, Fernando Alonso (108), in the championship table. Often the greats hang on long past their use-by date. Schumi, on the other hand, seems to have arrived at the decision with the cool, feet-on-the-ground reasoning he has been famous for.

Quite the most striking aspect of Schumi's success with Ferrari — five consecutive titles from 2000 to 2004 — has to do with the way he has motivated the mechanics and the engineers of the Italian team that was the brainchild of Enzo Ferrari. Cutting edge technology and support from a committed team play a big role in Formula One, bigger perhaps than in any other sport — a point made by Alonso when he noted, "I don't think anyone can beat his records. You have to be extremely lucky to be at the right team all these years like he has." But technology and teamwork can help only up to a point. For example, there is no greater indicator of excellence in Formula One than success in wet conditions, when pure driving skills and control matter more than ever. In the last three decades, only Ayrton Senna, the Brazilian genius, has been better than Schumacher on rain-soaked tracks. It is a great pity that Senna lost his life on the Imola track in 1994 just when Schumacher was beginning to assert himself. Theirs might have been a rivalry for the ages. There is, of course, a scaly underside to Schumi's sporting greatness. He can match Zidane's collection of red cards with the brickbats he has received on track. In this year's Monaco Grand Prix, the seven-time champion was punished for deliberately impeding rivals to ensure he took pole position — the latest in a list of controversies with his fellow drivers. But even they will not grudge him a position in the F-1 pantheon — alongside Fangio and Senna.

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