Schumacher blasts back over driving tactics

He hit back at rivals Eddie Irvine and Jacques Villeneuve, saying he did not take their comments seriously.

Schumacher argued that the criticisms were limited to just two drivers - and not almost all of the rest of the grid, as was suggested after drivers met with the FIA in Austria two weeks ago.

However, observers at this afternoon's official press conference, where his comments were made, say that David Coulthard immediately took issue with the German over that particular statement.

Schumacher has been slated for weaving to protect his position and swerving across the track at the start of a race.

"What are we drivers doing here? Is this Formula One or are we playing happy families?" blasted Schumacher. "I race in a hard but fair way. Nothing else. That's always been the way it has been.

"In England they have turned me into this bad guy who does things that are not allowed. That's not true. What I do is okay. If it wasn't, the stewards would tell me and I would drive accordingly. I don't understand the controversy. It's not only me that's doing it. The drivers that are complaining are doing it too.

"It's only two that have a different opinion to mine. Charlie [Whiting, FIA safety delegate] agrees with the rest and not Jacques Villeneuve and David Coulthard."

Questioned about Irvine's comments that he was "a bully" and Villeneuve's criticisms that he "lacked ethics", he fired back: "I don't take these two guys seriously. I don't want to discuss these two comments at all. Lets talk about serious matters."