Despite being one of the oldest drivers of the current field, despite having won 70 races, despite being on the verge of clinching a record-breaking title, Michael Schumacher is still at the top of his game, like the German showed at the United States Grand Prix. Atlas F1's Karl Ludvigsen pays tribute to the World Champion

The situation isn't quite the same, I know, but Michael Schumacher's performances at Monza and Indianapolis remind me a bit of Juan Manuel Fangio's later years in this important respect: the younger guys just can't wait for him to quit! Fangio went on and on, active in Grand Prix racing from 1949 through 1957, the year he won his final world title. New drivers came up through the ranks - Moss, Hawthorn, Brooks, Castellotti, Musso, Perdisa, Collins, Von Trips, Lewis-Evans - but Fangio just shrugged off their challenges. He admitted that he had to try harder to stay ahead of the youngsters in his last season, 1957, but he was 46 years old, after all.

Irritatingly, the elder Schumi's only 34! According to my calculations he has at least two more years to go in the sport. Just as irritatingly, he gets better and better. His skills seem unmarked by time while he augments his racecraft and shrewdness year by year. Like Fangio, he has outgrown a whole generation of drivers. Stunningly, Michael is the only driver still racing in Formula One from the class of '91 in which he made his debut. All the rest are racing team owners, competitors in lesser formulae, TV commentators or dead. Only Schumacher carries on, sublimely at the top of his game.

Sir Jackie Stewart suggests that Michael should retire after this season. "He has to retire sometime," says the Scot. "There's nothing worse than a falling star. Schumacher is currently the best but he must understand that nobody is irreplaceable and nobody is up on the pedestal for too long. You've got to move on in life and develop yourself." This is a laughable notion. For one thing, Michael's contract with Ferrari is valid through 2006 and he is fully capable of fulfilling it. For another, Stewart is a businessman who made a fine career as a racing driver. Schumacher is a racing driver who has made a fine fist of being a businessman. Their priorities and perspectives are sharply different.

The race-winning Schumacher style was illustrated brilliantly by the slippery Indianapolis Grand Prix. There was nary a hint that he wouldn't keep his red car on the island in spite of extreme provocation from Indy's turbulent weather and the too-close attentions of David Coulthard. Okay, through much of the race he had the advantage of Bridgestone's superb intermediates, but without them he was at a disadvantage with his "slicks." Unlike some others, he didn't throw his race away in the worst conditions. That took supernatural skill.

And then there's the team he drives for. As I've said before, reliability just isn't an issue with Ferrari. All those testing miles have paid off in a car that's the next best thing to bulletproof. Ferrari has engineered and tested pure luck out of the automobile, which is why Michael should have no problem collecting the single point that he needs from Suzuka. As long as he keeps it aimed in the right direction he'll leave Japan with his record-setting sixth World Championship.

Nor is it just Ferrari's F2003-GA. The team behind it showed what it's made of by sheer hard work to optimize both engine and chassis to meet the rising challenge from BMW Williams. Ross Brawn admitted that their easy 2002 season contributed to Ferrari's overconfidence this year; any hint of that is now long gone. Brawn also said that the new rules for 2003 sharply constrained his team's opportunities to develop and implement strategies during the race. Be that as it may, at Indianapolis their strategies were spot-on and flawlessly executed. This contrasted sharply with the efforts of other top teams that were expected to do better.

"Montoya thrives under pressure," read the headline in the International Herald Tribune before Indy. It didn't look like it in the race. It was one of the volatile Colombian's less appealing efforts. And as for the incident in which he nudged Barrichello into the gravel, this was deeply unattractive and deserving of the penalty he was given. I'm just sorry that Indy hasn't caught up with the trend to pave runoff areas. Rubens would have been back in the action in seconds had he spun off onto asphalt instead of gravel and the race would have been that much more exciting.

Special mention must be made of the achievements of McLaren-Mercedes in America. Putting Kimi on pole and placing him second in the race were no small accomplishments in that damp race on Michelins. McLaren said that they "found something" in their last test session at Barcelona, and that "something" was impressively on display in the USA. I think that the bar is set too high for them to make Kimi a champion in Japan, but they and he have shown their tremendous potential for the future. There's only one problem for the quick young Finn: like the rest of his generation, he'll have to wait for Michael Schumacher to retire.

About the author:
Long time columnist at Atlas F1, Karl Ludvigsen is an award-winning author and historian who managed racing programs for Fiat in America in the late 1970s and Ford of Europe in the early 1980s. He is the author of seven books about racing drivers and numerous books about classic racing cars and engines, all of which draw extensively on the many images in his Ludvigsen Library in Suffolk, England. This autumn will see publication of Karl's long-awaited work, the update of his epic Porsche - Excellence was Expected. It reveals for the first time details of the all-conquering McLaren-TAGs and the disastrous Footwork-Porsches. Information on the book and a pre-publication discount are available at the Robert Bentley website