'Keep your distance,' warns Rubens

Last year, Williams did exactly that after Barrichello collided with Schumacher Jr twice in the first two races.

"If it happens again here, then in Brazil I'll do the same thing they did to me last year!" Barrichello said, before adding that the Melbourne incident would not affect his approach. "I'll approach the start in the same way I have done in the past. I am looking forward, not back. There is no way I am going to get the points back from Melbourne, we know who's fault it was."

Ralf Schumacher said that he had not spoken to Barrichello about the incident and won't be doing so. "I don't think there's any necessity to," he said. "The two of us know what happened and have a vested interest in it not happening again..."

Michael Schumacher, however, reiterated that his pre-season appeal for everyone to stay calm at race starts, is still valid.

"I mentioned in Australia that everyone has to avoid an accident by staying calm," he said. "We will have accidents everywhere if drivers don't behave. After what we have seen in Australia I hope that people will be a little bit more relaxed. It wasn't only the Ralf/Rubens incident. At the back there were people being optimistic and crashing into other cars."