World champion Michael Schu-macher shrugged off suggestions he was under pressure on Thur-sday and presented himself instead as the hard man of Formula One.
Without a podium from two races this year, Ferrari's five times world champion said he could handle the heat after his worst ever start to a season.
"When the going gets tough, the tough get going. That's my thinking," the German told a news conference before Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos.
"At the moment things are going a little bit tougher and we become stronger," he said. "I'm not worried for what has happened.
"I know what did happen, I feel that as long as you can analyse it and understand it then you can still look ahead and we do look ahead," he said.
"The first two races are not too good. Still, we got eight points out of these not very good races for us and our time will come again."
Schumacher finished fourth in the season-opening in Australia after Ferrari made a poor tyre choice and had only himself to blame in Malaysia for a first lap collision.
The incident, in which he hit the rear of Jarno Trulli's Renault, left Schumacher sixth in the race and also sixth in the championship.
Australia was the first time since September 2000 that Schumacher had relinquished the championship lead and the first time since September 2001 he had finished off the podium.
"It will be a much tougher season, a much tighter competition and that's what we face," said the German.
Schumacher suggested that pressure was a double-edged sword and deflected claims from rivals such as McLaren's David Coulthard that he made more mistakes when under stress.
"I have the reputation of being great under pressure and I have the reputation of doing mistakes under pressure. So, take the one you like," he said.
The German said there had been no particular inquest at Ferrari after the disappointing first two races.
"We analyse and discuss all the races to be prepared for the next," he said. "But it was very clear what happened to us in the first two races and there was no need to get together particularly to change our strategy or our approach."
The opening races, rich in drama and surprise after rule changes, have been credited with reviving Formula One after a year of Ferrari domination when the Italian team won 15 of the 17 races last year.
Schumacher disagreed with the premise advocated by many fans last year that the sport had either become boring or was somehow in need of saving.
"In sport, not only in Formula One, there has always been certain kinds of dominance from either a tennis player or a team or whatever," he said.
For the first time in almost 36 years, a Parisian derby will be played in French soccer’s top flight when reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain FC take on the nouveau riche Paris Football Club (PFC) today. Not one of the players involved in today’s match — PFC’s 38-year-old third-choice goalkeeper Remy Riou is almost certainly not going to be involved — was born the last time there was a Parisian derby in Ligue 1. That was on Feb. 25, 1990, when Moroccan midfielder Aziz Bouderbala scored a brace as Racing Paris 1 beat PSG 2-1 at the Parc des Princes home that
BOUNCING BACK: Antetokounmpo had just returned from an eight-game injury absence last month, leading the Milwaukee Bucks to their third win in four games Giannis Antetokounmpo threw down the game-winning dunk with 4.7 seconds remaining to lift the Milwaukee Bucks to a 122-121 victory over the Charlotte Hornets and grab a slice of NBA history on Friday. The Bucks trailed by as many as 16 on their home floor, but Antetokounmpo scored 12 of his 30 points in the final quarter to help seal the win in a frantic finish that saw five lead changes in the final 45.7 seconds. The two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) added 10 rebounds and five assists. It was his 158th regular-season game with at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and
Stan Wawrinka’s 40-year-old legs did not let him down over three-plus hours in his first singles match of a farewell tour yesterday. Three-time Grand Slam singles champion Wawrinka beat Arthur Rinderknech of France, who is ranked 29th to Wawrinka’s 157th, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5). The match went 3 hours, 16 minutes. Wawrinka last month announced that this year would be his last on the ATP tour. “Today was a tough battle ... it’s amazing to come here for the first time, to have so much support,” Wawrinka said yesterday. “Twenty years on tour, you kind of always play in the same place
Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka yesterday got her season off to a winning start for Japan in the United Cup, after the UK’s Emma Raducanu pulled out of their singles clash with a fitness issue, while in Brisbane, Taiwan’s Latisha Chan and Wu Fang-hsien crashed out of the women’s doubles. In Perth, despite Osaka’s win, the UK took the match 2-1 with a deciding mixed doubles victory. Osaka was too strong for reserve and 276th-ranked Katie Swan, winning 7-6 (7/4), 6-1 as Raducanu watched from the sidelines. “I’m proud of how I fought,” Osaka said. “I’d never played here, it was tough.” Britain
RSS