Schumi speaks of Race of Champions - 2nd November 19:50pm GMT

There is an assumption that Formula One is the pinnacle of motor sport, that the top dog on the four-wheel grand prix circuit lords it over all other drivers. But short of putting Colin McRae or Valentino Rossi in a Formula One car, or letting Michael Schumacher loose in a rally car or on a 500cc motorbike, there is no accurate way to determine who is the most talented all-round racer in the world.

“Maybe there is a guy around who never had the opportunity to get a seat but is the talent of the talents,” Schumacher, the most successful grand prix driver of all time, suggested. “Plus, I think everybody has his own talent. Maybe mine is more for open-wheel cars and others have it more for saloon cars. I am not a friend of those superlative comparisons, which are never really fair.”

In Paris next month, 16 of the best drivers from all motor sport disciplines, including Schumacher, will thrash it out in a mix of Ferraris and rally cars on a two-lane track at the Stade de France. If any event will show who is the most adaptable — if not the fastest — driver in the world, it will be this.

The event is entitled the Race of Champions — Nations Cup, traditionally an end-of-season extravaganza for the rally world but more recently a highly charged clash of talents from Formula One, rallying, oval racing and motorcycling. It is the occasion that illustrated the talent of Rossi, the MotoGP champion, in a rally car. So far, though, Rossi is not confirmed for this year’s race, on the evening of December 4.

Rossi is not the only world champion with a penchant for rallying. As a youngster growing up near Cologne, at a time when Walter Rohrl, his fellow German, was the best rally driver in the world, Schumacher was more interested in rallying than Formula One.

“When I was younger I was attracted more to drive a rally car, but by now I have to admit I would probably rather drive on tracks where we have run-off areas than on streets where the run-off areas are made from trees,” the seven-times Formula One world champion, who recently had a ride in a World Rally Championship car with Petter Solberg, the former title-holder, said.

This year’s event will have less of a rally element than when it was run on a dirt track in the Canary Islands. The move to Paris, where a capacity crowd of 60,000 is expected, has meant building a track with a harder surface. It will still be slippery, but the conditions will neutralise the advantage for rally drivers such as McRae.

McRae is one of the big names signed up for the French capital. Also on the bill is Sébastien Loeb, the newly crowned world rally champion, Jeff Gordon, the NASCAR multiple championship-winner, and Jean Alesi and David Coulthard, Formula One grand prix winners both. But the one driver all the others are most keen to topple is Schumacher.

“I am hoping to be one of the few drivers to beat Michael this year and certainly the first from outside F1,” McRae said. The sentiment is not all one-way. Schumacher is just as excited about hanging out at the Race of Champions with the best drivers from other forms of motor sport. “It is simply nice to be able to meet those other drivers,” he said. “I am interested in motor racing in any form.”

Schumacher’s agreement to compete is a coup. Traditionally he puts a line through his diary in winter in an attempt to spend time with his young family. “I had heard of the Race of Champions before and it sounded like big fun,” he said. The thing that persuaded him was the event’s agreement to support the ICM, a planned cutting-edge Parisian brain and spine hospital, of which Schumacher is a patron.

Schumacher has become deeply involved in supporting the opening of the ICM, along with Jean Todt, the Ferrari managing director. “I find the idea fascinating, to create a centre of knowledge, research and rehab for the benefit of the patients,” Schumacher said. “Brain and spinal cord problems are the most likely disease to suffer from and it is just good to know you try to do something against it.

“My input is quite small compared to my partners. First, it is obviously a financial input, as obviously we need donations, and then I just try to attract people to that project.”

Schumacher is not only racing for ICM and for himself in Paris, he is part of the Germany team in the Nations Cup. His team-mate will be Armin Schwarz, the rally driver. They will take on rivals from countries including France, Great Britain, Finland and the United States. “I am sure the competition will be really tough, but that’s what it is about,” he said. “All of them are great drivers, all of them are hard rivals, so what more can we want? I think the German team is set very well.”

He is up for the challenge. “I love competing,” he said. “That’s part of what keeps me going and in the Race of Champions the competition is fair and square. I like the idea of having drivers from different series driving with and against each other. But I don’t think it is about finding out the ultimate best driver.”