Schumacher: “The car goes where I want it to go!”

Michael Schumacher was in upbeat mood after outpacing team mate Nico Rosberg in both practice sessions in Spain on Friday.

Schumacher was much happier with the revised Mercedes, and says that the car is now doing what he wants. He made it clear that his assertion that China was a glitch has been confirmed.

“It’s certainly feeling a lot more a race car into my hands than at least in China. China we obviously haven’t fully understood exactly, but nevertheless I’m feeling comfortable in the car. That’s what I’m asking to do, if we can work very well with my engineers, my team. Obviously the improvement to the car certainly helps.

“It’s not about confidence, it’s simply that the car goes where I want it to go and I don’t have to wait too long to go to this point!”

Despite his upbeat mood Michael did not want to be drawn on whether his season would now turn around.

“I don’t think we want to get into any kind of detail analysis now. The clear trend is there. We have improved certainly, I have more ability to work the car to my needs, that’s what it is, that’s what I look for. The team has reacted very good, and now we look forward to make the best out of this.”

Curiously Michael went on to say that confidence was an issue.

“The matter of fact is with the car we have right now, we certainly have the ability to work it a lot more in directions that I’m looking for. That simple was not possible before. So I’m feeling a lot more confident in what the car is doing to me. Again it sort of confirmed that China, whatever glitch it was, but something didn’t work out for whatever reason, and that works back to a more normal situation.”

He added that he is working well with Rosberg: “Absolutely. I think we actually work very well together, because we have similar interests. Not driving style, but at least a similar development direction, and priorities that we set. In this respect it is very good working with Nico, I have to say. He’s very clear, he’s very how do you say, strong in his opinion. It helps all of us to work with a very good team mate.”