Schumacher broke Alain Prost's all-time record of 51 wins this season, raising it to 53. In the process, he won just over half of the year's Grand Prix.

He also broke Prost's record for number of points accrued - thanks to a remarkable average in 2001 of more than seven points a race.

Undoubtedly one of the very best racing drivers of all time, Schumacher is relentlessly continuing his domination of the sport, and it seems likely to be only a matter of time before he breaks the only records left.

Another title this year was tied up long before the end of the season, and that takes him to four, just one short of Juan Manuel Fangio's five.

The only record that may prove difficult is Ayrton Senna's mark of 65 career pole positions. Schumacher has 43, and a Ferrari contract for at least another three years.

In the cockpit, there is no one to match Schumacher. Mika Hakkinen might well be as quick as him over one lap, but he has now gone. And even Hakkinen could not match the Ferrari star's all-round ability.

Schumacher has a metronomic capacity for pounding out laps at the limit in a race. His driving in the wet is peerless. And in mixed conditions, on dry tyres on a damp road, he is quite simply sensational.

The only real question mark is over his tactics, which have not endeared him to his colleagues. Schumacher has demonstrated a ruthlessness on the track which often sees him on the end of swingeing criticism from his fellow drivers.

But he shows little sign of mellowing with age, correctly reasoning that if his rivals find it impossible to predict what he will do, then he is already halfway to winning the battle.

It might not be nice, but then, as Schumacher says in his defence, "this is not playing happy families and having a nice coffee".