Schumi looking forward

Michael Schumacher had to exit the Chinese Grand Prix early yesterday after he spun off during the safety car period. Before the race, when the German ex-World Champion drove his car to the start grid, Schumi and Christijan Albers from the Minardi F1 Team.

Michael Schumacher is happy the season is over and looks forward to the 2006 season.
Michael Schumacher "So now it's time to take a deep breath - this race really fit into this season. Everything went wrong at once again, so I'm relieved that the season is over now. Not because I'm tired of racing, but because there's no improvements happening right now. I am going to fly home now and finally see Corinna and the kids again. That's what I'm looking forward to the most. The race started out strange as I was trying to warm up my tyres during the installation lap. The best way to do that - and especially when you're not driving very fast to save fuel - is to drive from side to side on the track. Christijan probably wasn't able to see that and I didn't notice him coming, either. And then suddenly there was a big bang. And I spun during the safety car phase, because my tyres were very worn down and cold and therefore had very little grip. When Felipe had to brake suddenly in front of me, I naturally had to do the same, and that was enough to have me spin off the track.

This surely was not a season that we can be proud of, and the fact that we came in third in both championship rankings does not really reflect our performance. But now we can fully concentrate on next year, and our only ambition can be to fight for the title once again. When you consider how well we did last year, and that the other teams were able to do be so far ahead of us in terms of performance this year, then the conclusion would be that we should also be able to be among the best in 2006. We'll work hard for that over the winter, that's our goal.

Lots of people asked me yesterday, how long it takes for me to regain my passion for driving after a screwed up season like this - that's easy: I'm even more passionate about racing after a season like this! It makes you want to fight and be among the best even more. You can't forget that even though there were many reasons to be disappointed this year, but no reason whatsoever to be disappointed in any of our people, our team is and always will be great. You really have to tip your hat to all our workers at the track and the factory, they worked ever so hard all year and never let anything discourage them. So therefore I'm optimistic for next year, because you can do now wrong with this crew. There's a new challenge ahead of us and we're all looking forward to it. A big thank-you to all of them!“