The reigning world champion's first official Ferrari duty of 2003 is at Madonna di Campiglio this week. He skied in a torchlight procession last night (Wednesday) while the sport's governing body, the FIA, was making its radical proposals for the future known to the world. During a press conference, Schumacher gave his response to the changes.

Q: In the light of yesterday evening's news, what's the difference between driving F1 cars with sophisticated electronics and those without?
Actually, I started in non-sophisticated cars, then we had the time of development with very sophisticated cars, with active suspension, with traction control and almost fully automatic cars in '93. Then we came back in '94, we stayed with those sort of rules for quite a while before we came back to all the electronics. Driving-wise it is simply a different target that you have because when you have no driver aids, you have to take all the compromises and deal with them yourself.

If you have all the electronic possibilities, then you optimise your car much more and it is a sort of challenge in the technical direction together with the engineers to get everything to the maximum. There is simply a different challenge which for me, I preferred the one where you have all the technical possibilities because I don't like to take compromises in the race car, I like to make the race car as fast as possible and all the electronics have helped that. Obviously, that's the same for everyone and if they change it, then again it's the same for everyone out there with the other systems before, so I deal with them as they come.

Q: Could you say which is the easier, is it more straightforward to drive a car with technical aids or is it more difficult without the aids?
Whatever you want to do on the limit, at the high peak, it is not really a big difference, in all honesty. It is very complicated to set up the car in a way that it is perfect and then to drive it that way. Although it maybe doesn't look any more difficult but you are simply able to drive much finer on the limit, and more consistently on the limit with all the driver aids than without, which doesn't give the impression outside. The point of difficulty doesn't really change very much from my point of view. It will change for some young drivers who seem to get on very easily with Formula 1 at the moment, to a certain speed.

Q: Do you agree with these changes?
Personally, I believe that F1 has to adjust itself to changing scenarios and changing times, because other sports have to change and so does the economic scenario. We know that from a financial point of view many teams have problems. As far is the future is concerned, I understand that we have to come to terms with this. Perhaps F1 is going to become more accessible for other teams than it is at the moment, because we know that today huge expenses are involved in the development of an F1 car and for many small teams it is impossible for them to enter into this competition.

If you think about the future, many things are going to depend on what changes are being decided on today. Of course, not everyone is going to be satisfied because there will be one winner and many want to win always but this is not going to be possible. But I think it is necessary that these things are tackled for the future and that other manufacturers can enter F1. Personally, I believe that this may be something positive for F1 itself. Everything can be implemented in the short term, but many of these things cannot be implemented today.

Q: Don't you think the banning of radio communication between the drivers and the team can be dangerous if there is oil on the circuit, or rain?
You've basically picked on one point. I'm pretty sure that all of the points that have been discussed, you have some arguments against and [some] in favour. You can turn it however you like and I'm pretty sure that what you are going to do in the next few days is to take each point and view it from various positions but to some degree, yes, you're right. If you don't have radio communication then if there is an oil problem in a certain corner, if there is an accident in a certain corner, if there is a rain situation, mixed on half the circuit to another place, then on the radio side you can communicate and you can discuss it. If you don't have the radio, you cannot.

Q: What do you think about the manner in which these decisions were taken?
Obviously it's a matter for the teams to quantify this, because I am not sitting in this committee to hear and discuss all the matters. I'm only involved in the decision at the end. I got to hear these decisions like you very late last night and the feeling, as I've said before, is that maybe a little bit short notice to apply certain rules. The teams, in the end, have to see whether they can deal with it or not, it's not for me. I race the car and for me, as I said, it doesn't make a huge difference because I race with whatever I have as long as everyone is racing to the same rules.

Q: Do you not feel that drivers should have been more involved in these decisions?
As long as it doesn't concern safety, and as long as the sport doesn't become more dangerous, then honestly I don't have a problem with the way things are going. If you see the communication with the FIA, it has improved tremendously because we have the safety group meeting, and I have, from my point of view, some input in all the safety measures and that's what I am happy about. Concerning the politics, I have always said I am not a politician, I don't want to become one, I don't want to become a team owner, I don't want to get involved in that. I feel I want to race and I feel that, in particular, Jean Todt is the right person to deal with those matters. I have always trusted him and he always tries to achieve the best in our interest and I believe he has been quite successfully so far.

Q: What do you make of the opposition, who will be strong this year?
Basically, what I'm doing like everyone else is following what's going on at a distance so I see the end result, lap times, but I'm not involved in all the detailed lap times, how they happen, at what time of day, what consistency in running, so it's a little bit difficult for me to judge properly. I can only say that, in my view, it's going to be McLaren and Williams who are going to be strong opponents but everyone knows that, so I'm probably unsuccessful to give you any precise and correct news on what's going on.

I'm starting testing on the 21st [of January] and then I shall probably have some contact with the other teams, and then I will be able to judge a little bit better what has changed over the winter time. But one thing I'm pretty sure of is that the competition will become tighter, for the simple fact that we have pretty much maximised our possibilities and other teams obviously have not, so for them, it's easier to make bigger steps than it is for us. I'm pretty sure that this season is going to become a lot tighter between the three main teams. Who is going to be the first one? I hope it's us and I think we still can be, but who is going to be the second one, that's a little bit open.

Q: Various changes were announced a couple of months ago; how do you feel about the new one lap qualifying, and what do you think about only being allowed one rain tyre?
Qualifying, yes, it's going to be interesting and that's going to be change a little bit. For sure the approach, how you deal with the preparations towards qualifying and during qualifying, I'm pretty sure during the season one time or another, we will see some top cars which normally may be in the first row won't be there because maybe one day you make a mistake, you have only one lap available and that means you end up in the position it comes out, so that's going to be a little bit more exciting. I look forward to this, honestly, because usually I feel I have always a good approach to the very first time I got out for qualifying, so I feel that it suits me quite well. Let's hope it turns out to be [that way].

And secondly, because there is one rain tyre, in the end you go for the one which is the fastest, but in certain rain conditions that could be a problem.

Q: Could Rubens be a bigger threat than even the drivers from McLaren or Williams next year?
If we still have the advantage we had last year, yes, that will be [the case]. As I said before, I don't think that is the case but still, if we can have any advantage, even though it's little, then Rubens should be the one who is going to be the most dangerous because he has improved his game quite a lot, I rate him very highly and he's going to be a big threat to me. That's what we're doing it for.

Q: Don't you feel that some of these rules have been made against Ferrari?
That's the view that you have right now because we have been sort of leading the championship from the beginning and winning it very early. But I think it may be a couple of years, or in some years, who knows, it will change and another team might be in our position then it will be that team. Currently it looks like it is against us, but I don't think it is against anyone, it is simply in favour of the smaller teams even for them to score points in eighth position. I feel pretty happy with this. All the other changes, I don't see that everything has really been done against Ferrari. It has simply been done to improve the show for the future.