Schumacher still up for F1 fight

After his tough Istanbul race, which was spoiled by early contact with Vitaly Petrov for which most observers blamed Schumacher, the German admitted in a television interview that the "big joy" was missing at present. But in Spain today he said that remark should have been taken as solely a comment on his race result, rather than a summary of his Formula 1 return as a whole.

"If you saw the whole interview then it should have been very clear that this was meant for this race [Turkey]," he said. "Having a car that was capable of fifth and sixth, and deducting all the unnecessary bits in the first two laps, I would have been most likely sixth and not being there, that is obviously not the biggest fun."

He said his mood remained positive heading into this weekend's Spanish GP.

"It is no different to any other event," said Schumacher. "If you think anything has changed in myself, no. That is certainly not the case.

"Even doing that race, I enjoyed part of that race, with the overtaking and the action I had, but then the result I certainly did not enjoy. I had no issues and no problem with anything that is coming up ahead of me now."

The seven-time champion added that he was relaxed about the extensive media coverage his post-Turkey mood had received.

"Naturally you prefer not to have unnecessary critics. But that is part of our life. I have been through this so often, and after every storm the sun always comes out," he said.

But Schumacher admitted that he still was not settled enough to eliminate the minor errors like the Turkey qualifying slip that left him back in eighth on the grid while Nico Rosberg qualified third, a second faster.

"Certainly I need to change something, in a way that avoids the mistake that I did in Turn 1 in Turkey, that leads to other things you do over the edge," Schumacher acknowledged.

"If you are in the flow and everything is right then you feel it, I am aware and I know that I am able to do this, but I know you have to pull it in the right moment of time and that success rate is not yet 100 per cent."