What now for Michael Schumacher? Three world titles, 43 grand prix victories and the first drivers' world championship in 21 years for free-spending Ferrari, the biggest name in motor racing - but his contract with Ferrari runs until the end of the 2002 season and he now has the challenge of becoming the most successful driver of all time.
Nine more victories to add to Sunday's in the Japanese Grand Prix would take him past Alain Prost's record tally of 51. One more championship would equal the Frenchman's four and bring him within striking distance of the great Juan Manuel Fangio, who won five titles in the 1950s.
The Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn, the 45-year-old Briton who was also the architect of Schumacher's two previous world titles at Benetton in 1994 and 1995, believes the best is yet to come.
"Now that we've achieved it, I think that the intense pressure will disappear and the team will be a little more relaxed," he said. "I think you might see another notch on Michael after this." Schumacher, who is paid £26 million a year by the Italian team, is a true child of the commercial age - he earned another £100 million last year in endorsements alone - but money is not what makes him tick. His critics may say he has a profound lack of interest in the traditions of his sport, but everyone stands in awe of his prodigious talent. Driving racing cars is as important for him as the air that he breathes.
He also operates in a remarkable stress-free cocoon which is maintained for him and his wife Corinna by the Stuttgart entrepreneur Willi Weber, who discovered him as a teenage kart racer and crafted his career, entering him in his own Formula Three team a decade ago.
Schumacher's dominance of the sport will also bring a smile to the face of Formula One's commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone, who believes that Ferrari winning is good for business. Television audiences increase, and the prancing horse is one of the world's most famous brands. That means more income for Ecclestone's empire at a time when it is being fattened for a possible stock exchange flotation and the sale of a stake in it to several of the world's major motor manufacturers.
Schumacher is now Germany's most famous sportsman, if far removed from the only other German within hailing distance of a F1 title. In 1961, Count Wolfgang von Trips stood poised to clinch the title only to die, along with 14 spectators, when his Ferrari crashed in the Italian Grand Prix.
His team-mate Phil Hill won the title, but believes Ferrari's inter-team rivalry may have contributed to Von Trips's crash. In those days the shots were called by Enzo Ferrari, who paid his drivers a few hundred dollars a month and heightened the tension between them by refusing to nominate a team leader.
In the era of Schumacher, the world's best driver dictates terms at Ferrari but, according to Brawn, his input is always positive. "He's been much more involved than some drivers, encouraging everyone, spending a lot of time with the mechanincs. He's been really involved in making Ferrari work as a team. No one can doubt Michael's ability as a driver, but as a person he's a great human being."
Eddie Irvine, who had to play second fiddle to Schumacher before joining Jaguar at the start of this season, is convinced Schumacher is the best. "Michael is always pretty intense," he said. "There is nothing lighthearted about grand prix racing for him. He is there to win and nothing else."
