Michael Schumacher has dismissed speculation he is not enjoying Formula One racing by saying he remains as motivated as ever amid signs of improvement by the Mercedes team.
The 42—year—old German, a seven—time world champion, admitted he was unhappy with his performance while finishing 12th in Turkey, but was now looking forward to the Spanish Grand Prix next week.
Formula One moves to the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, a track familiar to the teams through pre—season testing and where Schumacher has won six of his record 91 Grand Prix victories.
“While I was not happy with my weekend in Turkey, there have been clear signs of improvements for us as a team, which obviously push and re—boost my motivation even more,” he said on the Mercedes GP website.
“It’s more than encouraging to see that the hard work of the team is starting to pay off. We are all determined to make progress,” Schumacher said.
He added that the Spanish Grand Prix “is traditionally where it really feels like the European season gets underway and holds a lot of good memories for me.” He added: “Of course, we know the Circuit de Catalunya very well from testing, but it will be interesting to see the effect of Kers (kinetic energy reduction system), the DRS (drag reduction system) and the Pirelli tyres on a track where overtaking is always difficult.” Team—mate Nico Rosberg, who finished fifth in Turkey after starting from third on the grid, said: “Our upward trend is clear for all to see, even though we still have a little more progress to make in race configuration compared to qualifying.” Rosberg, 25, has consistently outperformed Schumacher since the veteran German returned last season following retirement. He has garnered 20 points to Schumacher’s six after four races this year.
“I’m looking forward to Barcelona, where we will also be introducing an update package for the car, and I’m excited to see how it works,” Rosberg said.
“We showed a good level of performance at the final winter test on this circuit, and hopefully we can translate that into a strong result this weekend.” Team principal Ross Brawn said it was hoped to achieve greater consistency with new aerodynamic developments and refinements to the suspension package.
“The last two races in Turkey and China have proved that we can be quick in certain conditions but we need to focus on achieving that level of performance consistently over the entire race weekend,” he said.
“The Circuit de Catalunya is such a familiar venue to the teams that we should be able to maximise our practice time to focus on this, and I hope to see another step forward and a positive weekend.”
