Question: Michael, recently the message coming from Mercedes seemed to be very, very positive, very optimistic. The recent upgrades seemed to give you, both drivers, and the management as well a lot of hope. What are your feelings about it?
Michael Schumacher: Yes, well certainly we very much look forward to this weekend. Despite the upgrades, in particular hearing that we have almost sold out Nürburgring weekend. Ticket sales are going very well. Coming here as the German national team, Mercedes and us two drivers, it is going to be a very special weekend. I have lots of good memories from this place and with the recent updates we hope to be able to improve our game and give something to our fans here. The weather as you pointed out before is going to be a subject and it is going to be interesting but, listening to our guys in terms of upgrade and positioning where we could be, coming back to the rules as they exist right now it will be interesting to find out what does that mean to the individual teams and where that is going to move us. So lots of things to look forward to and it is going to be an exciting weekend.
Question: Everyone is waiting for your first win since your comeback.
Michael Schumacher: Me too.
Question: How far away is it?
Michael Schumacher: Well I don’t think we are in a position yet to talk about winning races. We are on the way. We steadily improve although maybe results don’t show it but if I see in terms of the organisation how we equip ourselves, how we move forward, what’s the actions for the future, I am very optimistic to be quite honest. It wasn’t initially a long term project for me when I signed up but after a while I understood it is going to be and there is nothing that you can rush through. You have to progressively step up and that’s what we are doing.
Question: Six drivers means 25 per cent of the grid; why do you have so many German drivers in Formula One?
Michael Schumacher: Why? At the moment, I think the general reason is that we have a huge German industry for cars that is interested in Formula One and that in the past - not only Mercedes but other manufacturers - have invested in Formula One and have invested in young driver programmes and still do. So motor sport in general is of a much higher importance than it used to be and there are lots of schools and talent scouts to find the drivers of the future. Luckily, because of this possibility there is a big mass of drivers anyway who do go-karts, do many, many kinds of categories, so we were lucky to establish the final six ones that you see at the moment here. This is part of the reason that finances and support have been given to us and the opportunities have been given. But then, why did we have, at certain moments, so many Brazilian drivers, so many Italian drivers? I think it’s a sort of phase of life that you go through. Why were there more than 10 Italian drivers - I think even 12 or 14 Italian drivers when I started Formula One? Why we have almost none at the moment, apart from Jarno (and Vitantonio Liuzzi)? I don’t know, whether it’s just because of the financial side or whether there are other reasons or it’s just coincidence.
Question: Mr Schumacher, there are reports that maybe it’s the last time that the Grand Prix will take place at the Nurburgring. What is your comment on that?
Michael Schumacher: It would be a shame.
Question: Michael, at the beginning of this season, you announced that ‘this year we will be stronger, we will be better.’ Do you remember your points and place after nine races last year? I can tell you. Thirty-four points in ninth place and this year, 28 points in tenth place. Are you disappointed until now?
Michael Schumacher: Yes, I am, yeah, absolutely. I think we all expected something different, as we all remember coming to Australia, to the first race and we were very excited, having had a good winter test and then it didn’t transform. Now we all know the reason and now we are on the way to improve our game, but as I mentioned at the beginning and have done so very often, it’s a mission and the mission unfortunately doesn’t always go in one line upwards. It’s like a stock market: before it goes up, it falls down a couple of times and the general trend, what I can see in the factory, the progress that we are making in terms of the infrastructure, how the team is building up, I see very good signs that we can make it.
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