Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro’s official duties for the season began today in Melbourne with press conferences for Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello. The two men attended a Shell conference in the city at which the Brazilian arrived in a kart. As for his team-mate, Michael arrived in a two seater kart with seven year old Lachlan enjoying the passenger ride of his life. Suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, Lachlan was the beneficiary of a special charitable initiative organised by Shell in conjunction with the 'Make A Wish Foundation.'

As this was a Shell conference, it was perhaps inevitable that the question of engine reliability would be a strong point on the agenda, because of the importance of lubricants in this respect, even more so this year with the new one engine per weekend rule.

'It looks impressive that engine life has had to be extended from around 300 kilometres to double that, but in reality, it was not as difficult to achieve as we had first thought,' began Schumacher. 'The new rule will have an effect, because you will always be conscious of not overstressing the engine prior to the race and although reducing engine revs and doing less laps on Friday is one possibility, you cannot reduce the laps too much because you still need to do all the usual preparation work, such as finding the right tyre choice. It will be a compromise.'

Reliability with the new F2004 in general has also impressed the reigning world champion. 'We had good tests all winter, with no major problems,' he maintained. 'It is tremendous that the car has been quick and reliable straight out of the box. And as for this weekend, I am thrilled to be behind the wheel again at a race. We know it is an improvement on last year’s F2003-GA, but because neither myself, Rubens or Luca (Badoer) did an actual back-to-back test, I cannot tell you how much better.'

Schumacher was equally positive about the Scuderia’s tyre situation. 'We have worked very hard with Bridgestone this winter and their other teams, especially Sauber, has contributed a lot to the programme. Bridgestone has raised their game for this season.'

The Ferrari man was asked for his views on having both qualifying sessions on Saturday. 'I am in favour of this rule,' he stated. Last year, the track was often dirty on Friday afternoon, as it had not been used much and other formulae had practiced on it in between our sessions. This new system should be fairer for the drivers who have to go out early in the first session.'

Finally, Michael was asked what he would have liked to do if had not become a racing driver. The Ferrari man did not have to give the question any thought before replying that he would have wanted to be a professional football player.