"It is roughly the same distance as the other two races, it is worth the same ten points for a win, so I would like to look at this weekend as Number 3," said Michael Schumacher when the F1 media asked him how he felt about the coming Spanish Grand Prix.

Speaking in very hot weather at the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro motorhome in the Circuit de Catalunya circuit, the winner of the last two grands prix seemed in confident mood as the season heads towards the conclusion of its first third of eighteen races. "We have no concerns about our Bridgestone tyres here, I do not foresee any problems and we know what to expect from our testing here," commented the German. "With this the second of two back-to-back races, none of the teams can have made any significant steps forward on the technical front, so this weekend, performance will depend on how well the track suits the various cars."

Asked if he felt any other teams seemed likely to join what currently looks like a Ferrari versus Renault battle, the Ferrari man said: "I hope so, because it would be nice for someone to come between me and Alonso and take points away from him and on that front, I don't think we should rule out McLaren yet."
 

But Michael does not really expect too much help from his team-mate. "I am not surprised that Felipe got on the podium at the Nürburgring and he did it in a tough and very difficult race. But he is not there to help me, he is there to help himself and get the best result he can."

The media still insist that Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro have enjoyed a renaissance over the past two races, but Schumacher insists that the 248 F1 has been competitive since the start of the year. "We knew in Bahrain we had a good car," insisted the seven times world champion. "We knew we had the potential and now we have shown it, which is a great reward for everyone in the team who has done so much work."

It looks like becoming a 2006 tradition and inevitably Michael was asked yet again about his future plans. He actually opened up a bit today by talking about when he might make his decision: "It could be very late. Ferrari is quite happy to wait until the end of the season."