Schumi attends Ferrari press conference - 10th June 18:00pm GMT

Michael Schumacher only arrived at the track in the afternoon on Thursday and his first job was to sit down amongst the plants and bushes that decorate the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro paddock area and talk to the press.

It was a brief meeting and the first question was about concerns raised after Kimi Raikkonen’s accident a fortnight ago at the Nurburgring, after his flat-spotted front tyre caused his suspension to break. “You cannot just say this accident was due to the new rule forbidding tyre changing during a race,” began the reigning world champion. “If you look at the situation last year, when tyre changes were allowed, we saw some tyre failures even then. It is down to the tyre manufacturers to now produce tyres that last the whole distance, but in the case of Kimi it was actually caused by driver error, as flat-spotted the tyre. You cannot insure against ever making mistakes. It was his decision to stay out on track which is fair enough, as it is very difficult decision to make in a situation like that.”

As for this weekend in Montreal, Michael agreed with a questioner who reminded him of his excellent record in the Canadian GP. “Yes, that’s true,” said the German “ and we would like to maintain that this weekend. We have some improvements on the car, but the question is always the same – will it be enough. Anyway, we will keep fighting.”

The Ferrari man went on to maintain that, apart from the obvious disappointment, he was able to deal with this period of races without a win. “In the past, we went many years without winning and I dealt with it then and it is not a problem now. We are facing a different challenge at the moment and although the results have not been so good, our race pace is competitive, so we just have to keep on working to get it right in the other areas.”

Regarding his chances of maintaining his championship title, Michael took the same view as he always has done in these situations. “I just think it is not yet over mathematically and so that’s the way I look at it.”