Schuey entertained by Webber's drive

The world champion, speaking in Kuala Lumpur ahead of this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix, said: "I was watching him and [Mika] Salo on the monitors [big TV screen] as far as I was able to do that, and it was interesting! I was very excited for them because Minardi has been around for such a long time and has suffered quite a lot. I have quite a lot of empathy with them and I thought it was absolutely great for them - an Australian driver in an Australian team doing it in Australia. Nobody expected that at all.

"At the finish I was quite delighted for them and by chance I drove into Paul Stoddart while I was coming into the pitlane, so I had the chance to congratulate him there already. But I wanted to take the opportunity to say well done to them properly and after the race they came down to the Ferrari garage and we all had a chat."

Schumacher thinks that the Malaysian heat could also mean a race of attrition at Sepang.

"It's quite tough on drivers and machinery," he said. "I remember the first year, 1999, I was driving off-line on the main straight trying to keep cool, because there was some shade there. You try to look for that because it is a hard race."

If the tyre characteristics mirror those of last year, the Michelin-shod cars should be comparatively better suited to the Malaysian climate than the unusually cool temperatures experienced in Melbourne.