No change - Schumi

Michael Schumacher joined a group of German speaking drivers naturally enough, in this afternoon's FIA press conference at the Nurburgring, where,despite fears of bad weather with the race being held so early in the year, the temperature is over 20 degrees, with good weather forecast for most of the weekend.

And it was temperature that was the key to the first question faced by the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro man, as the subject of the operating range of the Bridgestone tyres was raised. "The tyre situation is different from last year," said Michael Schumacher. "But we have learnt how to handle them and we are on top of the situation." Following on from the win in Imola a fortnight ago, Michael feels this could be another good weekend: "we are in a position to fight for the win here," he maintained. "As we have seen, it is very close at the top with three, sometimes four teams capable of winning, so it's just a case of who can get the most out of their package."

The subject of Schumacher's F1 future is becoming a ritual question now. His answer keeps getting shorter. "No change," was today's answer. On the technical front, Michael was asked for his views on the V8 engines introduced this year, and the fact that cornering speeds are higher than in the past. "The V8 was introduced to reduce lap times, reduce speed and make the sport safer. But it is always the case in Formula 1 that you have ten people making the rules and a hundred engineers finding ways round them. It is true that we have a higher cornering speed, but our approach down the straights is slower now. But just think how fast we would be if we had stayed with the V10. But the cars are still fun to drive."