Schu welcomes aero changes

The seven times World Champion has admitted that the speed of the cars in 2004 was creating g-forces that even he was struggling to cope with - especially in the season finale at Interlagos.

"I was a bit sceptical at first, but in Brazil I realised it has to happen," said Schumacher. "The cars are so fast that the forces you are dealing with are much stronger than in the last few years.

"I saw a lot of my colleagues in Brazil who had trouble holding their heads up straight after the race, and I was having trouble, too."

Interlagos is always a stern physical challenge for drivers as it one of the few circuits to be tackled anti-clockwise, but Schumacher said that the rescheduling of the event should have made this less of a problem in 2004.

"This time, it was the season's last race, and by then the neck muscles shouldn't be causing any problems because they have been trained throughout the whole season," he said.

Schumacher sampled a Ferrari modified to suit the 2005 aerodynamic regulations in a Jerez test before Christmas and clearly felt the effect of the changes, but he is looking forward to the challenge of the new rules.

"It all seemed extremely slow in the beginning," he admitted. "It will be a different Formula 1 and everyone will have to adjust to it, but it will also be interesting."