With less than two weeks to go before the start of the 2005 season, the busiest since the Formula One World Championship began in 1950, reigning world champion Michael Schumacher has sent out a chilling warning to his rivals; he's looking forward to the battle, and is as motivated as ever.
"I'm sure it will be a much more difficult year," he tells Richard Rae of The Sunday Times. "For whatever reason, it was unexpected for us to be much stronger than the others at the start of last season, and whatever mistakes they made, they now probably won't repeat.
"At the same time it has been very tough to get where we have arrived to," he continues, "we know what it takes and we'd simply like to hold on. I believe we can."
Asked if he can pinpoint the secret of Ferrari's phenomenal success - the Italian outfit has won 76 Grands Prix since Schumacher joined in 1996, as many as in the previous 36 seasons - he replies: "It is very much to do with choosing the right people in the right positions, people who will work with each other."
With just a few days to go before the launch of his team's 2005 contender, which won't race until Spain, pre-season testing has not been spectacular, as far as the Italian team is concerned. Then again, pretty much the same thing happened last year, when the red cars wiped the floor with the opposition in Melbourne.
In 2003 the rules were altered, in a clear attempt to halt the Ferrari juggernaut, for the most part they failed. Now, for 2005, a whole new raft of regulations have been introduced, with safety and costs (seemingly) uppermost in the minds of the rule-makers. Ferrari technical director, Ross Brawn, believes that one change in particular could cause the world champion to alter his tactics.
"One thing Michael does supremely is drive in stints," says the Englishman, "say, 20 laps flat out, then come in and change the tyres and start again. This year, with only being allowed one set of tyres per race, he'll have to adapt.
"What's interesting is that he's always been harder on tyres than Rubens," he adds, "so he's going to have to be much more measured."
The pre-season agenda has been dominated by politics, and in particular, talk of a breakaway series. At the heart of the current political debate is his own team, but does Schumacher pay attention to the intrigue?
"I follow the politics at a very reserved distance," he reveals. "We have 10 team owners and they seem to change their minds every five minutes, so if I get into that, it doesn't really help. It's not an area I like to be thinking in. I like to stay in my limits, or my responsibilities, which are to my family and to my team, and anything beyond that, it's not what I try to look into."
Asked if this is merely avoiding the issue, he replies: "Everybody has to do what you feel you want to do, and I want to decide for my own life, not let other people decide. That (attitude) has developed because of the education I've gone through; at some stage you have to decide what is important for you and what is not important. Public life has never attracted me too much."
The interview comes to an end when the German is told that his car is ready and he can resume testing. He gets to his feet, bids his farewell to Rae, and smiles. "This is the pleasure time," he says.
