The BIG interview Michael Schumacher Sunday 25 July 2004

Michael Schumacher has built his formidable career on a will of iron and the elimination of all weaknesses, but he has revealed to the BBC that he is prone to occasional flashes of self-doubt.

At 35 and 13 years into the most successful and lucrative career of all time in a gruelling sport, Schumacher shows no signs of tiring of Formula One.

The German is gunning for his 81st Grand Prix victory at his home race this weekend, where his Ferrari team could also clinch the constructors' title for the sixth year running.

But despite the aura of invicibility that surrounds Schumacher, he says in an interview with Grandstand that from time to time he does worry about the dangers involved in the sport.

"There are moments of doubt if you do something for so long that has a level of risk," he says. "But I believe in fate and, if something is going to happen, it can happen anywhere at any time.

"I just want to keep on enjoying myself as long as I can."

Team owner Eddie Jordan, who gave Schumacher his break into F1 with a one-off drive at the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix, says he hopes the German retires sooner rather than later.

"I think he should stop. But then I'm just scared that anything should happen to him. What more can he do?" Jordan says.

He's ruthless, because that is a fundamental ingredient in a quality sportsperson Eddie Jordan F1 team owner

But Schumacher says the sheer pleasure he derives from F1 will keep him in the sport for some time to come.

"I'm not thinking much about it," he says. "The only thing I know is that when the day comes when I decide to stop I will do nothing for a while.

"I can't imagine there is anything else I can do to that level with the excitement I'm having.

"It's still the greatest thing - apart from the family, of course, the private life - that I can do and I want to do."

The programme features interviews with Jordan and BAR driver Jenson Button, who both discuss the characteristics that make Schumacher an all-time great.

"He's ruthless," says Jordan, "because that is a fundamental ingredient in a quality sportsperson. They have that brutal heart, do it at all costs [approach], that has to be there to form that ultimate greatness."

Jordan says Schumacher has been the "driving force" behind the astonishing success achieved by Ferrari, who have won every drivers' and constructors' title since 2000, and are poised to clinch them again this season.

Schumacher says his Ferrari team are the greatest ever in F1

Schumacher says: "The biggest love I have is motorsport. F1 is its biggest challenge and, if you [succeed] in a team that you feel is your family, it is all so perfect that you think: 'Is it really true this life you live at the moment?'"

But the six-time champion says he is sure that Ferrari's domination of F1 will come to an end - it is simply a matter of when.

"Success for other teams will come sooner or later," he says.

"That it lasts so long for us was not expected, but there is no reason why others will not fight back and challenge us."