Ralf rejects BMW rumors

(GMM) Ralf Schumacher has rejected persistent speculation that he could return one day soon to BMW's F1 camp.

For five years until the end of 2004 the German raced a BMW-powered Williams, and at recent grands prix the Toyota driver was spotted in conversation with BMW-Sauber principal Dr Mario Theissen.

But 31-year-old Ralf insisted: "No. I hear this (in the press) again and again because I often talk with Mario, but he is simply a friend.

"We have never spoken about me returning to BMW."

Nevertheless, Schumacher revealed that – unlike his retiring elder brother Michael – he is looking forward to close to another decade on the grid.

"I am 31 but the end for me is not in sight," the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag quoted him as saying. "I can't see a reason why I shouldn't keep going until I am forty."