Schumacher resigned to losing

Motor racing

Losing has been an alien concept to Michael Schumacher in recent years, but he has already accepted that he will not win the World Championship for the third time this season.

The German, whose team-mate this year in Ferrari's F310 cars will be Britain's Eddie Irvine, ruled himself out of the running for the Formula One title yesterday when Ferrari launched their car for 1996 at their Maranello headquarters in Italy.

Schumacher, who left Benetton at the end of last season, said: "I am not playing down my chances, but I have to be realistic. We are starting something new here. I felt quite empty after spending four and a half years at Benetton - we'd achieved everything together. But I have plenty of motivation now."

Luca di Montezemelo, the Ferrari president, hopes that his team will win at least three grands prix this season. "I want us to win more grands prix than last year," he said.

Montezemelo was also keen to re-affirm Ferrari's position as Italy's top Formula One team after Benetton's spectacular launch in Sicily last week.

"We have a great respect for Benetton and Flavio Briatore for what they have done and what he has done," Montezemelo added. "But I find it interesting that they are an Italian team now. They have Renault engines - the best in Formula One - they have the best team in the United Kingdom, and they have drivers from France and Austria."

n Damon Hill was fastest around the Estoril circuit in his new Williams- Renault yesterday as five Formula One teams took the chance to put some miles on their cars. Hill clocked the best lap around the 2.701-mile circuit of 1min 21.64sec from a total of 27 laps. Behind Hill were Britain's Martin Brundle, in the Jordan-Peugeot, and Finland's Mika Hakkinen, in the all- new McLaren-Mercedes. Hakkinen is back on the circuit after recovering from a fractured skull sustained at Adelaide last year.