FORMULA ONE: Justin Hynes points out that it is the total package which has set Michael Schumacher apart from the legendary figures of yesteryear, not least Juan Manuel Fangio

The statistics tell the tale. Five world championships, the equal of the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio. Sixty one race victories, 10 clear of nearest rival Alain Prost. Forty-seven fastest laps, six clear of Prost. Most championship points scored - 887 to Prost's 798.5. Most laps in the lead, 3,407. They tumble on, like the information punched onto the tickertape used to garland the parades that in years gone by would greet the homecoming of a legend.

They tell the tale of Michael Schumacher - the greatest racing driver ever.

Such are statistics. Do statistics tell the whole tale, do the ones and zeros, the ever flowing tide of numbers offer shade and nuance, circumstance and happenstance, the vagaries of looking at drivers from disparate generations whose ethos, machinery, structure of competition were wildly different? The numbers unfortunately do not hold the whole truth.

After the events of yesterday, Michael Schumacher's Fangio-equalling five titles will be trilled by the faithful like dogma in a churchyard. The statistics tell all. Nobody else has achieved as much in so complex and difficult a sport.

But the real truth is that comparing Schumacher and Fangio is like comparing a fish and a bird.

They may share the same lineage, the same sporting dna structure but they are aeons apart, separated by tides of evolution which cannot be rolled back.

The principle is the same as attempting to compare Premiership winning Manchester United side with the European Cup winning side of '68. It is an exercise of King Canute style futility.

Fangio racing in an eight-race series in machinery that now would be considered the motor racing equivalent of a horse and cart.

Schumacher racing a machine. A veritable bomb harnessed to the driver and forced through often 80 laps of circuits double the length of contemporary circuits. Fangio would have barely believed, possessing nigh on 900 bhp bolted to a chassis lighter than a couple of holiday packed suitcases, armed with more computer power in its launch control system than sent men to the moon. The comparison is odious.

It is even difficult to compare Schumacher's achievements with legends who raced 10 or 20 years after Fangio. The achievements of Clark, Stewart, Lauda, are as different to the sporting glories of Michael Schumacher as black is from white.

Continuing the football analogy, motor racing is a sum of its parts and a reaction to environment. To match last year's double-winning Arsenal against the same trophy-laden side of 1971 would be pointless. The team is a sum of the expertise of the individuals that make it up. Their performance is a reaction to the environment it is forced to compete in.

The defences of yesteryear were a wholly different beast to those of the modern Premiership. The chances presented to a striker were vastly dissimilar to those given to Henry, Wiltord, Pires.

Likewise Formula One, and all motorsport, is a team endeavour and it maybe in this regard that Michael Schumacher may possibly be considered one of the true greats and possibly the finest example of the art of team motorsport there has been.

In assembling around him the core of technical guru Ross Brawn, designer Rory Byrne, sporting chief Jean Todt and a host of keenly aware and massively experienced race weekend engineers, Schumacher, the best driver on the current grid, has also built around him a team capable of augmenting his skills with the best chassis, the best engine, the best tyres and, by and large, the best race strategy.

It is that total package, that complete preparation which sets Schumacher apart from those associated in the breath that sighs 'legends'.

Elite sportsmanship has increasingly come to spell domination and in this Schumacher is the equal of peak-time Martina Navratilova, Steve Redgrave, Carl Lewis.

It is the pursuit of sporting excellence via the elimination of any negative variable and Schumacher is a master.

The greatest natural driver of all time. No. Try Gilles Villeneuve, Ayrton Senna. The greatest tactician? Prost, Lauda. The greatest jack of all the trades it takes to dominate completely. That may just be right.