Hockenheim, 27th July 2006

Michael Schumacher shared his first official engagement of the German GP weekend with Nico Rosberg, Nick Heidfeld and brother Ralf, as today's FIA press conference naturally enough featured all four German drivers on the grid this season.

One could assume that an all-German panel here would attract a lot of questions, but it seems the intense heat, over 36 degrees, had effectively crushed all thoughts of questions from the journalists and the entire conference lasted a record 12 minutes only!

Asked if the combination of the testing ban which has just started with the fact that Michael had won the last two races meant that Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro would have the upper hand in the races until testing began again, Schumacher replied: "No, not really, because the level of competition in this sport is so high that you can easily fall off the competitive edge, as we saw happen to others in the last race. All we can do is take each race one by one, although we have done enough testing to be able to assess how we will perform in the next few races."


The last race in France was held in extremely hot conditions and it seems as though the mercury might climb even higher in the thermometer this weekend. "I don't think the heat has an advantage or a disadvantage for us," maintained Michael. "The subject here is tyres and I think that for both companies involved, sometimes you get it just right and hit the right spot and sometimes not. This is the most important factor in deciding who wins the races. From our side, I think recently we have increased our understanding about the tyres and, as you have seen, we have used this to our advantage."

Finally it was time for the rumours. Had Schumacher had an approach from BMW? "Not that I know of." Had Schumacher made his mind up about his future? "By Monza we will be a lot more clever. We will see in Monza."