Schumacher: 'no crisis at Ferrari'

Schumacher relied on a blend of raw speed and strategy to beat the McLarens into third place in Sunday's race at Magny-Cours, but had no chance of competing with the Williams duo of Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya. He now leads McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen by eight points going into the British GP at Silverstone.

"We realised earlier in the [French GP] weekend that we were not going to be as competitive as we had expected, so third place was probably the best I could do," said Schumacher. "We have a good car, but so has BMW-Williams. Of course we are aware of the situation, but we will now work very hard with Bridgestone to improve the situation.

"We are definitely not going through a crisis. I have extended my championship lead over Kimi and I am confident we can put an end to this current run of poor results."

Schumacher is adamant that Ferrari can return to winning ways to keep his championship challenge on track.

"We have seen turnarounds before quite often," Schumacher said. "Just take 2000. At the beginning of the year everybody said that I had as good as won the championship, then we had races like Hungary and Spa and suddenly Mika [Hakkinen] was in front of me. Then, suddenly, we again won the last four races. It doesn't take a lot to change the situation in F1 and I think we are clever enough to find this little bit that it takes."

As far as his brother is concerned, Michael added: "There is no reason to exclude him from the circle of world championship contenders after the performances he has shown. With the consistency he has and which the car gives to him, he is absolutely in it. In a way it's nice. In my view he has always been fast but now, finally, he has the car to show it.

"But I have to consider Kimi and Ralf, even if Ralf at the moment has the upper hand. He is still behind Raikkonen in the points and we will have to see how the situation develops. I suspect things will be better for McLaren again as well. It is now a fight between three teams."