Q: Michael, an amazing day, a great start alongside Nick Heidfeld, taking second place early on and an emotional scene there on the podium. Michael SCHUMACHER: Yeah, it’s been a very special day and to finish it in this style as we have been doing today, looking at the championship as well, but much more at what’s going to happen somehow in future. There’s been a lot of discussion for a long time concerning my future and so on and I think all the fans, all the people interested in motor sport, they have a right to have explained to them what’s going to happen. I’m sorry it may have taken longer than some of you wanted but you have to savor a moment, and you have to find the right moment and we feel this is the right moment. To make it short in a way, this is going to be my last Monza race that I’m going to do. At the end of this year, I’ve decided, together with the team, that I’m going to retire from racing. It has been an exceptional, really exceptional time, what motor sport has given to me in more than thirty years. I’ve really loved every single moment of the good and the bad times. Those ones make life so special. In particular, I should thank my family, starting, obviously, with my Dad, my passed-away Mum and obviously my wife and my kids who, at all times, supported what I was doing, and without their support, without their strengths, to survive in this business and this sport, and to perform, I think would have been impossible, and obviously I can’t be thankful enough, obviously to my family but also to my mates from the Benetton time and obviously, specially in the Ferrari days when I have made so many friends. I have so many great guys in that team and it has been a really tough decision to decide to not work together at this level with all my friends, my engineers, everybody. They are just so great but one day, the day has to come and I felt that at one point that this is the moment as well as, in terms of timing the decision, I thought that it was fair to find that moment so that Felipe has a chance to decide his future, because I think he is a very great guy. He has been doing a very good job for the team, very supportive, a really great team-mate, and there was a moment for him to decide for his future, and there was no point for me to take my decision any later than his decision had to be taken and this was the conclusion. As well as in a way my future replacement, it’s a driver – at some stage the team will tell you – but I was always pleased and I knew a long time ago – to hear that he was the person, and now I would just like to concentrate on these last three wins and finish it in style, and hopefully with the championship, we have made a big step today for that and I really look forward, and I want to thank everybody who has been on my way, or supporting me at all stages. They have been a lot of people. Thank you very much. Q: I’m sure everybody in Formula One wishes you well on that decision, Michael. Just looking back to this great win today, what were your thoughts when you were behind Kimi in those early stages? MS: Well, I was hoping that he was stopping a little bit earlier than we would, and so it happened, and the nature of this track is that if you stop earlier you obviously lose out because you run heavy against a car which is light, and that was enough to get by. Q: Thereafter, it looked to be a race you were in control of. A slight moment with Scott Speed, going into the chicane on lap 31, you lost a little bit of time there, but otherwise relatively trouble-free. MS: Yeah. Absolutely. Q: Michael, tell us about your mindset now as you look ahead to those three closing races in the championship, now only two points behind Fernando Alonso. MS: I think it is very easy to say what my mindset is. It’s not right to say, I’m more focused than ever because I’ve always been focused on only one thing once I’m in the car, so it is now. It’s a championship which started difficult in the beginning, but we returned to it after another difficulty mid-season and now we are two points behind with three races to go, so if I look back to Canada, nobody would have thought we could be in that position. Now we are, due to some luck, but if you look at the retirements over the year, it’s now equal and there we are, so 100 percent focused for the Constructors’ and Drivers’ championship. : Michael, one of the things I think you like doing most is standing on the top step of a rostrum on a sunny Sunday afternoon, and today was probably one of the best. How are going to give it up? MS: Yeah, Monza is just unbelievable, always has been very special particularly after the race when all the fans are allowed to celebrate this moment so close to us and with us and due to the nature of the circumstances, it’s obviously an unbelievable feeling that I had out there today. Q: You said to Peter just now that you knew a long time ago who was going to be driving in the team next year, so how difficult has it been for you to make your decision? MS: It has obviously, naturally, been difficult in a way but at one moment I simply knew that all the effort, all the energy, all the motivation you need in order to be competitive - and that’s the only reason I want to be here - I can’t see I’m going to have that for further years. It has been such a good time for all this time and there’s no point just to hang in there and maybe take away the future of a very young talented driver like Felipe. Obviously my replacement… I was aware of this for quite a long time, but with Felipe it was obviously around Indianapolis that his future had to be decided and I didn’t see a reason to just hang in there and maybe take away his opportunity and I believe he’s a very talented and great person.Q: You still have that competitive instinct, how are you going to get rid of it? MS: Well, we will have to see. I always said that the day I will retire, I will just do nothing for a while and then I will see what I’m doing, what is my mood and what’s going to happen, but I will always be part of that Ferrari family, I will have to find out how, but I will always stick with my friends there. Q: Today’s race: in the early stages were you just holding station behind Kimi, were you quite happy with that position? MS: There isn’t much sense to go much closer honestly, because you just start fighting the car much harder for not much gain, so I had to wait close to the pit stop time and then we both picked up the lap times and tried to stay as close as possible and luckily I had two extra laps and that worked out. Q: No problem with the car today? MS: No. Q: How difficult will these future races be do you think, now that you’ve made your decision? MS: I think this was my most tough one, in a way but it worked out fine. It’s not as if I’m lacking anything to make my decision, and this is the reason for it. I don’t want to be going away when I’m well over it and I want to leave while I’m still at the top level, so I don’t have any reason to have a problem for the last three races.視頻我也還在找, 找到在分享. |
