| Question:Michael, how did you see
the first corner incident? |
| M.Schumacher :
You can see
it from two ways. Obviously, if he had opened
up more, we wouldn't have
touched, but wasn't willing to do this so there
wasn't any room for me and we touched. I
didn't see a drama in that.
It was a shame. I lost my front
wing and had to come in for a pit stop and obviously
lost a lot of time on that lap, plus
the pit stop. But it was an exciting race in the end.
|
| Question : Do you think
Juan Pablo was dealt with harshly today?
|
| M.Schumacher :
To be honest,
yes. I think we've seen far
more extreme situations where
nothing has happened, and today, a little touch
and something was done. We don't seem to have
a very consistent situation. That's something
we may all want to improve in future. |
| Question : Michael, your third
place was pretty last minute; what happened with Jenson?
|
| M.Schumacher :
Not much. He
had a suspension problem, I would
assume, because the car was out of balance quite a lot.
He couldn't brake so he was very unfortunate.
It must have happened on the last
couple of laps. It was very fortunate for
me, obviously. I'm very happy
but that's the way things go. |
| Question : It didn't look as
though you were going to make it with five laps to go.
|
| M.Schumacher :
No, it's true.
I kept on pushing. There are moments
when you think 'let's
try'; there's always an
opportunity, sometimes, and it
came up. It was very lucky, you can't foresee
this, but if we had started
to ease off some laps before the
end, maybe it wouldn't have
been enough to catch him
up again. Thanks to that, and the
car being reliable and very consistent, I was able to
do it. |
| Question : Given the
circumstances, four points isn't bad today.
|
| M.Schumacher :
All you can
say is that we came with the old car to the
first two races and we weren't expecting to have 14
points in our account, plus
what happened today, to get four points, so
that's pretty much fine. I'm quite happy and relaxed
with that situation and not too unhappy. |
| Question : Do you think two stops
were right, in retrospect? |
| M.Schumacher :
From where
I came, probably yes. With a one -
stopper, I wouldn't have been
able to go through the field so we really had to have
an attacking strategy. And we did. As
well as when you're up
front, a two stopper is normally faster
and I haven't had a look at the lap times but
at one stage I noticed that I was
a little bit faster than
Rubens, so maybe I would have made it, but it's one
of those questions to which you
never get an answer. The way it is, that's what
counts. Let me say
one word. I have never done this before,
but I said to a question
the wrong answer yesterday. I was
asked if there was any talk in the drivers' briefing
( about behaviour at the
first corner ) and not to cause any fuss
within the media, I purposely wanted to save my
team-mate a little bit and calm down the
issue, which is why I said no, to answering
about discussions. After this, I noticed that
some drivers spoke to the press, so I apologise
for that. |
| Question : Did you change your strategy
after the accident? |
| M.Schumacher :
Yeah, I took out the fuel
at the pit stop! No, obviously, you cannot take
out the fuel so I must have had a two-stop from
the beginning. |
| Question : Michael, could
you choose the one-stop strategy. Do your tyres
give you this option? |
| M.Schumacher :
I think it
was Villeneuve doing a one-stop strategy,
and who else? Yes, I think there is that possibility,
yes. It depends from where you are. Maybe
you would think about it. |
| Question : Michael, do
you accept that the Williams' were faster
today? |
| M.Schumacher :
You have the
chance to watch all the
lap times and to have a point of view and I do
not. I have been racing. So I should
really check the lap times. Sometimes one lap
time does not count for the whole race, at the
end of the day, at the end of the day they
have been faster because Ralf won
the race and they were first
and second, but whether they have been really
faster or it is all down to the first corner
accident and whether my car
was completely right afterwards
and all this, I think it matters a little
bit. You don't know that and I don't know yet the full
picture. |
| Question : Michael, does
this change plans for
the new Ferrari car? Does it put you under more pressure?
|
| M.Schumacher :
No, I don't
think so honestly. The season is 17 races long and even
if the car is not ready for Brazil, we are going
to take points from
Brazil for sure and the championship is
not going to be decided after the first three races.
|
| Question : Does getting
punished like that alter
your approach for the next race? |
| M.Schumacher :
I don' think so.
As we both describe it as a racing accident, what should
we do? |
| Question : Michael, after what
happened to Rubens, were you concerned
for the rest of the race? |
| M.Schumacher : No, not really. We don't
normally have these problems. It must have been a one-off
problem, honestly. |
| |
