Schumacher 'Pessimistic' for Germany

Ferrari ran from Tuesday until Thursday at Mugello in Italy to work on evaluating a new aerodynamic package due to run in the German Grand Prix.

But although Rubens Barrichello claimed he was encouraged by the progress made, Schumacher is far more downbeat about the prospects for his home Grand Prix.

"I don't feel like promising big things to my fans," Schumacher was quoted as saying in Gazzetta dello Sport. "I'm not thinking about victory at all but I'll do my best to get on the podium at least. I must admit I feel fairly pessimistic."

When asked about whether his work in testing this weekend had helped the situation at all, Schumacher added: "To be honest it wasn't a lot of work, just improvements for the next races.

"After Indianapolis I felt very optimistic, but once we were back in Europe whatever good it was suddenly disappeared. Therefore after Magny-Cours and Silverstone it would be an illusion to think that things could change here."

Schumacher's pessimism about Ferrari's fortunes this weekend has not been helped by the fact that the team are still unsure about the exact reasons as to why they are so slow.

"I know it's hard to understand. Myself and everyone at Ferrari struggle to understand why we are so slow," he added. "If we managed to understand it, the problem would be solved.

"In F1 there's never just one reason, it's the combination of the various elements of the package that doesn't work and we are constantly doing nothing but wondering why, without being able to find an answer.

"In the last few races it was clear to see that we weren't fast enough. We are facing a situation but we don't know if we'll change it. But that's no reason to have doubts over yourself. We'll always carry on working; in our team there's always hope after each test. But no matter how big my hope is, I absolutely don't want to make predictions."

Despite his current feelings, however, Schumacher has made it clear that he is not getting disheartened with Formula One.

"In sport it's normal to have difficult spells," he said. "Sometimes it happens that someone works better than you and gets better results.

"But I can't really imagine my life without F1."