Schumi satisfied with best season so far

World champion Michael Schumacher cast a satisfied eye over the Formula One season on Thursday and said it had been the best year of his career to date.

The German also made clear at the season-ending Japanese Grand Prix that he was looking forward to targeting a fifth title, and third in a row, with an even stronger Ferrari team in 2002.

"Certainly. No doubt, I mean everything was right there," Schumacher told reporters when asked whether he rated the season as his finest.

Schumacher has won eight races in 2001, one fewer than in 2000 when he became Ferrari's first champion in 21 years.

But last year's title race went down to the penultimate round, at Suzuka, whereas this season the 32-year-old wrapped up his fourth crown in August with four grands prix to spare.

"We had two failures this year -- Imola and Hockenheim -- and from a reliability point of view we have had a great time," he said.

"We had a competitive car for all circuits, maybe with the exception of Hockenheim against Williams when none of us was competitive."

Schumacher has also smashed records, chalking up an unprecedented 52nd career win last month and being in with a chance of taking the all-time points record at Suzuka on Sunday.

HARD FIGHT

The 32-year-old German has also been on pole 10 times in 16 races on his way to becoming only the third four times champion ever.

"It wasn't too dominant, we were dominant maybe in the first two races," he said.

"Since then we had to fight very hard for it and again that made me enjoy the season very much...I look forward to an even stronger Ferrari period."

Schumacher said it gave him particular satisfaction to secure the title so early but refused to single out one race as being particularly special.

"There were many races this year when I thought everything worked very well together, from the car side, engineering side, mechanical side and in the end my side," he said.

Schumacher denied he had eased off since Hungary but agreed that the fans had not seen him at peak performance in the last two races.

"We have probably seen a realistic Michael Schumacher in Spa after the championship. How much we have seen of it since then I am not so sure," he said.

"I'm pretty sure we will see it again."

Spa, the Belgian race after Hungary, gave Schumacher his last win to date.

He cut a subdued figure at the Italian Grand Prix that followed immediately after the September 11 attacks on America and finished runner-up at Indianapolis to Finland's Mika Hakkinen.

Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello, who is chasing the second place in the championship, was more incisive during that race and led Schumacher until his engine failed in the closing laps.