No Crisis at Ferrari, Says Schumacher

World Champion Michael Schumacher has dismissed talks of crisis at the Ferrari team following another disappointing performance at the French Grand Prix.

"The media, whenever Ferrari doesn't win, immediately talks about Ferrari crisis," Schumacher told RAI television after finishing in third place behind Williams drivers Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya.

"Crisis was maybe five or six years ago, when we didn't win championships for so long, but we won four races this year, we're leading the championship. We know we have been a little bit behind in the last two races.

"But in sport things can turn around very easily and we are not miles behind, we are just behind, and I'm sure all our engineers at Ferrari, and on the Bridgestones side, everybody will push to turn this around and I sort of can promise that it will happen.

"I think it should go very well [in Silverstone], we had a good test honestly in England, so I hope we'll look a bit better than today."

Despite the result, championship leader Schumacher extended his overall advantage over McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen to eight points after the young Finn crossed the line in fourth place.

Schumacher had won his fifth title at Magny-Cours last year but has a far tougher fight on his hands this season.

Ferrari's technical director Ross Brawn said the team will have to work very hard in order to catch up with their rivals.

"We have a lot of work to do for the rest of the season but thankfully we are still in the lead of the championships but that's under serious threat so we've got a lot of work to do in all areas over the next few weeks for the rest of the season to stand a chance of winning this Championship," said Brawn.

"We're gonna work hard to make sure we do [dominate]."