Barrichello: Schumacher will not ease off

"People are saying Magny-Cours should be my race because Michael wants to take the title in Germany, but I feel that is complete rubbish," he said. "In Formula 1 you win when you can. We know from the results of testing that once again we will be competitive this weekend in France.

"From last year, we know that the Michelin tyre used by our rivals will be very competitive there, so we need to look after ourselves over the weekend and wait and see what result we get. We cannot go there thinking about the championship. We have to concentrate on winning the race."

A win this weekend would increase Barrichello's advantage over the Williams drivers for the runner-up spot in the championship. However, the Brazilian insists that his championship position is of purely academic interest to him.

"For me it is more important to win races," he said. "That pleases me more than the idea of finishing second in the championship. If you tell yourself that you want to finish second in the series, that is not really good enough, so as an individual I take it race by race and try and win as many as possible. If, at the end, I finish second then that is fine too."