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Question :
Michael, it looks as if you started with between
six and ten laps worth more fuel than McLaren and
Williams. Do you think that was a great strategy given
the car that you had today or could your strategy
have been different?
|
| M.Schumacher
: In the end, you always seem to be more
clever. The fact is that if I wouldn't have been stuck
behind Trulli, I guess I could have kept the situation
more close to Kimi, being out longer then I would have
probably managed to get him but that meant that I had
to have more fuel and this automatically means I would
be behind Trulli so however you turn it, in the end,
that's what we did and out of fifth position, finishing
in third position is reasonable. We try everything but
we have to say clearly that this weekend we probably
weren't strong enough. |
| Question :
Michael, fifth to third, at least you
made up a couple of places but even so I don't suppose
it was what you were hoping for… |
| M.Schumacher
: Yeah, you always hope for better but
realistically, from how the race developed falling back
with Jarno actually it is quite reasonable to end up
third. |
|
Question :
What about the car during the race
- at times you were perhaps a couple of seconds off
the pace, but that probably had something to do with
fuel, obviously…
|
| M.Schumacher
: Yeah, obviously the strategy was staggered
differently to others but I wouldn't say the situation
was the greatest with my second set. I really struggled
up to a certain point and then it got going but at the
end of the day I think it would have been very difficult
to jump another position. |
| Question :
Then at the end you were catching
these two, what was going to be your tactics then?
|
| M.Schumacher
: See and wait. You never know what
happens. |
|
Question :
But otherwise, obviously, six points.
Not too bad…
|
| M.Schumacher
: Yep, that's the way you have to see
it. We lose another two in terms of the championship,
it is back to four, but it could have been worse. |
| Question :
Michael, given the expectations of
the 2003 car, is this weekend a surprise and a real
setback? |
|
M.Schumacher
: I think it is nothing to do with the
car, honestly. It is nothing to do with the car so
there is no surprise if sometimes we don't win a race,
that's the way it goes. These certain conditions,
probably it is fair to say in the tyre side, it is
fair to say we didn't look too good this weekend.
|
|
Question :
So it was just strategy and tyres then
was it?
|
| M.Schumacher
: To some degree, if you look at our
pace we were not far off but we were not in front and
I would put that down to the tyres. |
| Question :
Michael, it may be hindsight, but looking
back at yesterday obviously you qualified relatively
heavy. Was that a bit of a miscalculation with the one-lap
pace of the tyre? |
| M.Schumacher
: I don't think it was a wrong calculation
we did because if you see with the more laps I managed
to jump two positions because I was longer out and I
put in very fast lap times. We probably, if we could
have known that, we should have put in just a little
less fuel to jump Trulli and then it would have been
a little bit easier but how you know that…You have to
make up your mind and sometimes you are better, sometimes
you are a little bit worse and that is the way it goes.
|
|
Question :
To Michael, were you using the same
kind of tyre on Thursday and Saturday because you
were really fast on Thursday and Saturday not so much…
|
| M.Schumacher
: If you don't mind I will just tell
you that we use Bridgestones. |
| Question :
Michael, may I just ask you what happened
in between say laps 38 and a bit later on like 46 or
47. You seemed to be a bit off the pace, just lapping
over 1m16. Were you just struggling in traffic or was
it something with tyres? |
| M.Schumacher
: No. I guess it was something within
the tyres because in certain periods I simply couldn't
achieve the lap times anywhere. |
| Question :
Michael, you said your Ferrari is a
fantastic car, maybe better than the old car. After
this race, have you the same opinion or not? |
|
M.Schumacher
: I don't think I need to answer this,
huh?
|
| Question :
To all of you, at the beginning of
the race it seems the last corner of the track was not
so clean. Was it a problem for you? |
| J.P.Montoya
: Nope. |
| K. Räikkönen
: It was a little bit slippery but it
was pretty much okay. |
| M.Schumacher
: Just to say, if you saw after the Porsche
race I think all of us were expecting a lot worse conditions
but actually the marshals did a good job. |
| Question :
Michael, last year you had a great
technical advantage. This year you are not leading the
championship and you were third in this race. Is it
the new regulations of have the others caught up? |
|
M.Schumacher
: I think simply the competition is
much closer. It is very clear. If you see even other
races, like Barcelona last year, we were miles ahead
and this year it was a tough fight so it has just
got much more together.
|
| Question :
Michael, the last ten or fifteen laps
it was great for us and the crowd, it was very exciting.
But as you were closing up you must have known that
you were depending on a mistake to happen for you. Were
you enjoying chasing the other two? |
| M.Schumacher
: Yes. To some degree you do enjoy catching
up then you just wait for your opportunity because the
race finishes when the chequered flag comes out and
not before. From my point of view I wanted to race until
then and see what happened because I knew those two
guys were very close and maybe one tries to overtake
the other and something occurs from this. |
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