Michael
Schumacher says four teams will dispute
the 2006 title - and that his team will
be one of them. |
He
said champions Renault would face opposition
from Ferrari, Honda and McLaren-Mercedes
this year.
|
He
told
Autosport magazine
"I
think we'll see a very close fight between
three or four teams,"
|
"I
am pretty optimistic we'll be one of them
along with Renault and Honda I think.
Whether we'll win it, we'll see, but we'll
be in it, I think."
|
He
won only once last year - and even that
was at the controversial US Grand Prix,
in which only six cars competed because
of tyre safety fears.
|
But
he said pre-season testing with Ferrari's
new car had led him to believe the team
were close to the pace.
|
"If
you look now, we're pretty competitive.
We're there with our lap times and that's
very promising for us," he said.
|
Schumacher
said the new 248 car's promising pace
had rekindled his enthusiasm, which was
waning at the end of 2005. |
"I
feel very different, simply because after
you've had a story of success like we
had, to then have a hard season... you
sort of get tired by the end of a season
like that. "
|
"After
a season like that, to then be off the
pace all winter would be very tough. It's
very consuming on the energy side." |
"Whereas
now it's the opposite to last season.
You feel so much more motivated and happy
to run with this car, see you're there
and that you can fight them maybe. It's
great." |
Schumacher,
whose Ferrari contract expires at the
end of this season, admitted in the interview
that his motivation had lagged at times
last year. |
But
he said he continues to race into his
15th full season in pursuit of what he
calls "the feeling" of pushing himself
and his car to new limits. |
"It's
a great satisfaction," he said. "At the
end of the day you sit there alone in
the car and you drive it and you have
to deliver the result, and the result
may satisfy you or it may not. " |
"But
when it does, it's fantastic. You like
to be on that optimum feeling - where
you know you've put everything to the
edge." |
"You
absorb every possible possibility, of
what the car, tyres, engine can give you.
This gives you the chance, the option,
to extract all of what's possible and
you then extract every bit of it. That's
when you get the feeling. " |
"You
know exactly when you got it and when
you didn't. You know it immediately -
you get immediate feedback. When you have
it, it's heaven." |
|
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