Schumacher relaxed on Rosberg form

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By Jonathan Noble and Pablo Elizalde    Thursday, March 25th 2010, 11:58 GMT

Michael SchumacherMichael Schumacher says there was nothing to be ashamed of after being outpaced by team-mate Nico Rosberg during the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.

"It's normal. It was the other way around maybe in the past, but it was the first race, the beginning of a new challenge for me," Schumacher told reporters in Melbourne, ahead of the second race of the season on Sunday.

"So I'm quite relaxed about that. He's a very good and fast driver, so I don't think I need to be ashamed about where I was in Bahrain."

"I don't think I had a particular expectation," he said. "It's no secret that he's a top pilot, with lots of potential. We both are references to each other. He's doing a very good job, he's a very good team-mate. He focuses on very similar subjects, that's quite important."

"Put it this way: if you see Nico and myself, I think the maximum performance we could have achieved was what we achieved," Schumacher said. "And that's where the car is at the moment. But then it's up to us to get there. It's tough work, Formula 1.

"It's a big challenge, and that's what we are here for. It's the reason for being around and come to the sport."

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Rosberg careful of Schumacher remarks

By Jonathan Noble    Thursday, March 25th 2010, 09:45 GMT

Nico RosbergNico Rosberg reckons that the biggest problem from racing in the same team as Michael Schumacher comes from trying to avoid off-track media wars than in actually competing with him in the races.

On the back of an impressive performances in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, when he out qualified and outraced Schumacher, Rosberg is fully confident he has what it takes to do a good job against the seven-time world champion.

But he confessed in Australia on Thursday that one of the biggest frustrations is that the focus on their partnership means he now has to be hugely cautious about what he says - in case his words are twisted to create a media storm.

"It has massively gone that way for me - that I need to be so careful of what I say," he explained. "Unfortunately I am not able to say any more of what I think in general, which is unfortunate but is the way it is. I can't afford bad headlines against one of the best of all times, who has a huge following and supporters.

"It is not in my person to say anything, but some people, if I say what I think, they will twist it and make it look bad. So I just need to be very careful. Unfortunately that is the way it is."

"For me, it is obviously a good position," he said. "If I am just behind....again it is the perception of other people. For me, it is just important that I do a great job in general. I am convinced I will do [that] the whole year, but for the perception of other people it is obviously a good position. If I am behind it is normal and if I am ahead it's great."

Rosberg also believes that both he and Schumacher will enjoy a step forward in performance if Mercedes GP can get on top of its understeer issues.

"There is a lot of understeer in some places," he said. "It is not the only problem we have, it is one of the issues and I am someone who is not able to drive very well with understeer so there is a lot of progress for both of us if the car starts to understeer less. We are trying to address that."