A glass of wine at the end of a race that had gone badly and then a chat with the race doctor, Sid Watkins, on the condition of Fernando Alonso. After this it was off to the airport as fast as possible for the long journey home. The third race in this championship will not remain long in Micheal’s memory. He had not had to retire since Hockenheim 2001, a long time ago. And as the other Ferrari driver, Rubens Barrichello, could not finish the race either (on his home circuit), the atmosphere in the pits was not too festive. ‘It really is an extreme let down.’ Michael commented before his departure. ‘That goes for both of us. We could both have won the race; we are convinced of that. I feel really sorry for Rubens; the same thing happened to him last year too. I don’t know, but it seems that his home races always go badly.’

To many observers, this year is not going well for Ferrari; Michael, though, puts this in perspective: ‘We shouldn’t dwell on it too much. After only three races there is still a long way to go. There are still thirteen races left and anything is possible. Clearly, things haven’t gone well for us until now, but in my opinion, the gap between McLaren and us is not that big. We would be ill advised to start panicking now. The fact that Kimi Raikonnen won the Brazilian Grand Prix is obviously worse for us than it would have been had Giancarlo Fisichella won but things are not so bad. I see things in quite an objective way: for me this season was always going to be more difficult than last and I again want to underline that this is something that we have always pointed out. I don’t want to make excuses; I want only to state that for me it was clear that we would have had to battle all the way. And battle we will; I don’t have a problem with that.’

It is a good thing given recent events that both Michael and Rubens will be out testing the new single-seater to the max at Mugello this week. It is true that the ‘old’ car is still competitive but the new F2003-GA has proved to be even quicker. ‘When the new car is ready we will use it,’ said Michael, ‘even if it would not have changed the result at Interlagos. I am looking forward to working this week because it really is fun driving and developing the F2003-GA.’

First though, Michael will be stopping by the Fiat stand and the Lipsia motor show.