2002 August News     Thursday August 15th, 2002 Michael's  press  conference Michael   Schumacher   had   his   first  encounter   with  the media  this  weekend,   when  he  held   a  press   conference in  the  Ferrari  press  motorhome  this  afternoon. He said : l “Although  we  talk about a three week break, it’s actually two  and  a  half, but I enjoyed having this time to relax and celebrate  and  go karting,  which  I  have not had much time for  this  year,”     l “I  think  karting  has  been  very  important  in my career, The main area  where it  helps is in  having  a close  wheel to wheel  fight  with your opponent. Karting is the best training for this.  If you think that Damon Hill had never competed in karts, he  learned  how  to duel very quickly in F1, but it was not  something  he  had  been used to, because of his lack of karting.” l “My impression of Juan Pablo now is completely different to  the  one  I  had  last  year.  Even  before he came into F1, there  was  so  much talk about him, that it was hard to know what  to  think.  But now, I know him much better: I know the man  behind  the  image  and  I  have to say I get on with him fine  now.” l “Winning  the  championship  has  not  really  changed  my approach to the rest of the season. I am looking forward  to the remaining races and  will  be  driving  as  fast  as  I  can. My target has not changed  and  that is to win as many races as  I  can.” l “It  is true that Rubens has had some bad luck, but maybe it means that period is over now. We know that generally our car  is  reliable, so there is no obvious explanation as to why Rubens  has  had  the  problems but not me. We know our car performs  very  well  and  he  is  only  a  few  points  behind second  place.  With  five  races to go, everything is possible as  long  as  we  put  the  right package together with the car and  tyres.  I  will  help  him  if  I  can.”