Michael Schumacher has admitted that the question of whether he was 'forced' to retire by
Ferrari is beginning to get irritating, insisting that he took the decision in conjunction with his family.
There were suggestions at Monza that the team's determination to line up
Kimi Raikkonen as his successor had forced Schumacher to call time on his career ahead of schedule, and that he was then forced into making the announcement at the Italian Grand Prix - a date earmarked by the Scuderia for its 2007 squad reveal - rather than at the end of the year, when his championship destiny would have been settled.
"I thought over the decision for a long time, I spoke to those close to me and I was not pushed into deciding," he insisted in the build-up to the Chinese Grand Prix, "I can only state once again that any talk of
Ferrari encouraging me to retire is plain silly.
"However, these things are not important. I am happy with the decision I made and, as I said at Monza, I would rather not think about it and concentrate 100 per cent on the title race instead. This is currently the only thing that concerns me and it will stay this way until after the season is over."
The German also played down suggestions that he would be more relaxed now that the decision to retire had been confirmed, telling journalists that, as long as they raised the subject, it would always be a distraction.
"A lot of people were thinking, or have the view that, when you make the announcement, the questions stop - which is the wrong way to look at it," he explained, "Instead, the questions then start, or there are new questions. But I have a target for the last three races, maximum concentration."
