Ferrari blood keeps Schumi motivated - 5th July 20:16pm GMT

Like millions of other soccer fans, Michael watched the Euro 2004 final in the quiet of his own home. This was the reason why the six-time champion left the Magny-Cours autodrome immediately after the post-race briefing. If the game had not taken place, Michael could have long celebrated his ninth win of the season. Never before has a driver won a race after making four pit stops and it is a feat that the German driver was especially pleased about. ‘I think that it is incredibly motivating to race for this team’, began Michael with a huge smile on his face. ‘Everyone working perfectly in synch is unheard of. What I like about Ferrari is not only the teamwork and the spirit that bonds us together. To this has to be added the creativity and adventurism in using unusual methods. I believe that this works only because we have complete trust in each other and it, undoubtedly, provides continual motivation’. This is the reply to the question that the drivers and team members are often asked; this is the strength of the Ferrari team: ‘It’s precisely this that our motivation is based on: everything is always new, always different. You always try to find and realise ever more exciting challenges, new ways of reacting and new set ups. This is why I like it so much’.

The French GP was also dominated by the views of the outgoing President of the FIA, Max Mosley, on the need to cut speeds in F1. ‘After the serious crashes involving Felipe Massa and Ralf Schumacher, it is time to drastically reduce the speeds of the single-seaters’, argued Mosley. Michael, as usual, preferred not to comment at the time and opted to reflect with the necessary calm given that it is such a complex debate. ‘In my opinion, the speed of the cars is not a problem at the moment’, declared the current F1 champion. ‘It could, potentially, become a problem and we drivers could resolve it, above all if F1 is left to itself. There is the need to set regulations that last, to slow the progress of technology so that we don’t reach that danger zone in which accidents are no longer controllable, an eventuality that could have ominous consequences. What happened to Ralf and Felipe was a warning sign. As in other areas of life, in F1 something has to happen before regulatory measures are put in place; it is this that we have to try to avoid’. Michael has clear ideas on this: ‘Safety has to be prioritised and it should always come before the spectacle’. This does not mean that motor racing will lose its character: ‘I think that F1 should remain…Formula 1. Drastic measures are often rash ones and not thought out long enough and in the long term they often lead in very different directions to those originally intended’.