Formula 1
Schumacher shrugs off criticism
It may have been suggested recently that the criticism Michael Schumacher has faced after the first two races could make him consider retirement, but the man himself thinks it's not hard to cope with. A disappointing start to the season for the ...
Published: Mar 31, 2003, 3:26 PM
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It may have been suggested recently that the criticism Michael Schumacher has faced after the first two races could make him consider retirement, but the man himself thinks it's not hard to cope with. A disappointing start to the season for the current champion, with a fourth and a sixth place finishes, doesn't mean he's ready to hang up his helmet yet. Schumacher accepts the criticism but believes there are races to come that will be better for Ferrari.
Michael Schumacher.
Photo by Brousseau Photo.
"When you make mistakes, you cannot expect to be praised," he said during a break in testing at Fiorano yesterday. "The criticism is not hard to cope with, especially as I think there will be races on tracks which will suit us better and where we will have the upper hand."
Schumacher also had a few opinions on competitors McLaren, Renault and Williams and was not surprised at McLaren's good start to the season: "We had predicted they would do well over the winter and that is pretty much how things turned out." He said of the Woking squad, David Coulthard and Kimi Raikkonen taking a victory apiece in the first two races.
"It is hard to assess the Renault performance: they were undoubtedly competitive in Malaysia, but how much of that was down to the characteristics of the track and the conditions there, I cannot say."
"Williams, the losers in this early part of the season? At the moment, one can say they are not the winners, but they could have been in Australia. I am sure they know what they have to do and the laps times over the last few days in Barcelona have proved it."
Driving the F2003-GA at the Fiorano track on Saturday, Schumacher again broke the lap record with a time of 56.338. Although the new car is faster than the F2002, Ferrari is not yet ready to put it into competition as there are a few reliability issues to overcome.
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