During the Christmas holidays the media reported on the news of his generous donation to the tsunami victims in South East Asia. Michael explained the reasons for his gesture. ‘I’ve always been doing something in other fields and at other times when I felt it was appropriate. I’m very lucky that I earn a lot of money in my job. It is my way of contributing to this situation. It’s obviously a little bit personal as well, to some degree. It’s kind of tough to see and deal with this and explain it to your children, so it was a very sad moment for us, and a way of trying to help people.’

Next week the German driver will get back behind the wheel at Barcelona in the car that Marc Gené is currently testing at Jerez.
‘The new car, the 2005 car, is going to arrive by the end of February and as we are not going to use that for the start of the season, we are going to have an interim solution and every update will always be available for the interim solutions car, which is last year’s car which we have changed to the new regulations.’ This ‘intermediate’ car will make its debut test in Italy next week or the week after.

The 2005 season will mark, for Michael Schumacher, his tenth with Ferrari. As he has been in Formula 1 for so long, there have been some who have enquired as to whether the world champion has already decided when to give up driving.
‘There is no time frame for me. There is obviously not the intention to make long term contracts because you have to take in my age, from year to year, and I will obviously think what is going to be my future at the appropriate time. That’s obviously the question it leads to. But the contract runs out at the end of 2006 so for me there is enough time to then talk about it at the right moment. But I see no end at the moment, no. Sorry!’

Responding to those who asked the world champion if he could identify his successor among the young drivers currently competing in F1, Schumacher stated: ‘Nobody, because honestly I never wanted to be liaised to anyone. I always wanted to be myself. People tried to compare me with other drivers in the past and I always refused that comparison and I’m pretty sure none of the other drivers want to be what I am. They want to be successful in their way that they do it. And there are quite a lot of talents around. and I’m pretty sure that sooner or later they are going to be in the position to win Championships as well but they do it in their style.’

As regards the upcoming season, Michael was asked who the real competition could be.
‘I’m pretty sure it will be more or less the same as last year. I would expect Mercedes to be there more from the beginning so they will be stronger for the whole year, but other than that, it will be pretty much be the same. It will probably be more or less the same drivers and teams as we have had last year fighting for the championship, but I think it will be more close and more tough because the teams will be better prepared than they were last year, so they will be fighting right from the beginning with us and obviously for us it will be tough as we are going to race the interim solution, but therefore we will be stronger when we get our new car and over the whole year, we will have to see which strategy is working out better.’

In conclusion, Michael was also asked his opinion on the general issue of F1 financing.
‘I think it’s pretty obvious that the economy worldwide is not as good as it may have been at some stage and at the same time, costs have increased in Formula One because you always keep developing, you always find new projects and that’s what everyone in a way is doing. Ferrari is looking intensely into this problem and trying to find appropriate solutions because there is no point being in a group and deciding things which haven’t been properly thought through. It’s always the same procedure, people may have an intention, but when you talk about the details of the intention everybody turns around and thinks about his own profit and his own situation, rather than keep on thinking about the problem. So I think it will be a self-fixing problem, because if there is less money available, there is less money to spend and teams will be very careful about their situation. If you think about soccer: what’s the material cost for some soccer boots and some balls? Very little, but anyway, they have the same problem, so I don’t think there’s a rule existing in this world to try and save, other than the natural saving of if the money’s not there you don’t spend it.’