Motor Sport/Spanish Grand Prix:Lewis Hamilton has listened to plenty of praise for his down-home modesty and level-headedness despite a start to his rookie season in formula one that, with 22 drivers championship points from three races, borders on brilliance.

It is just as well there is no great balloon of ego to prick, for when the last prodigy to make such an impression on the grand prix pit lane spoke here yesterday, it was not quite to lavish praise on the Briton. But then Michael Schumacher is a man rarely given to overstatement.

It is not that the seven-times world champion is unimpressed; more that Schumacher is merely unsurprised after witnessing Hamilton's talent flower during last year's GP2 series.

"He has been doing a very good job, and that is not a surprise to me after seeing his races last year in particular," said Schumacher, here yesterday to mark the 60th anniversary of the first Ferrari competing in a race at Piacenza on May 11, 1947.

Schumacher, who memorably stopped to congratulate Hamilton on his driving prowess in the Monza pit lane during the 2006 Italian grand prix weekend, made no secret of his regard for the 22-year-old, but stopped short of endorsing him unreservedly as a future world champion: "We will find out. We have quite a few great drivers in the field, so we will see."

Schumacher's seven-month absence from the paddock since finishing fourth in last year's Brazilian grand prix has hardly made him more open and gregarious. Whether discussing his private life or his new role as a Ferrari consultant, he retains the aloofness he projected during 15 years in the cockpit.

He did make it clear he had no ambitions to return to the pit lane as a driver. Nor was he interested in one day running the Ferrari team. "Neither. Absolutely not," he said. "I have other ambitions in life."