Schumacher told to throw in the towel over Alonso's dominance

By Volker Gundrum Jun 12, 2006, 13:46 GMT

Silverstone, Britain - Michael Schumacher was on Monday told to throw in the towel because everything is going Fernando Alonso's way in the Formula One season.

'Schumi, forget about the title, this Alonso is unbeatable,' said German daily Bild.

The statement came the day after Schumacher lost his last chance to win the world title without the help of others by placing second behind Alonso at the British Grand Prix.

Alonso leads Schumacher by 23 points and will repeat his 2005 world title even if Schumacher beats him for victory at all 10 remaining races.

'A Spanish world championship even if he finishes second from now on,' said Italy's La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Alonso and his Renault team are dominating the F1 world as Schumacher did in 2004 when his Ferrari stable ruled the sport.

The Spaniard has won the last three races from the pole position - first career wins in Spain, Monaco and Britain - for a season tally of five wins. He came second in the other three and with now 14 podium finishes in a row is closing in on Schumacher's record 19.

'To win in Spain, then in Monaco and now in Silverstone just 20 minutes away from my home in Oxford is a really great feeling,' said Alonso.

'So far it has been fantastic. Obviously there's nothing more to find in the car. We're running on the limit of the car. We need to keep doing things like this. I think the best defence from now on will be attacking and keep winning races is what we have to do.'

Schumacher insists that he hasn't given up yet even though 'we just didn't have the speed' in Silverstone.

He plans to return from a family holiday in the US he started Monday by trying to endanger Alonso, starting with the overseas races in Canada on June 25 and the US on July 2.

'Giving up is not an option, there's no reason to. There's too many races left to do that,' insisted the seven-time world champion, who named the task ahead 'inspiring' for himself.

However, many others rather fear that Alonso will dominate the rest of the season in a similar way to Sunday's unchallenged race to victory - leading to boredom in the sport.

'Alonso playing dominant role as the killjoy of Formula One,' said Britain's The Times daily Monday.

'The trouble with watching a genius at work is that it can become tedious. Seeing Fernando Alonso destroy the Formula One field yesterday to canter to victory in the British Grand Prix could probably be rated as the motor racing equivalent of watching Albert Einstein chewing the end of his pencil as he dreamt up the theory of relativity.'

'Plenty of brain power, but not much action,' said The Times.