Australian GP - Post-race press conference.

Drivers: Michael Schumacher (Ferrari), David Coulthard (McLaren-Mercedes), Rubens Barrichello (Ferrari)

Q:
Here we are with top three drivers from the 2001 Australian Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher, David Coulthard and Rubens Barrichello. I wonder, Michael, if you could just give us a simple story of your race today?

Michael Schumacher:
Obviously I had a great start, we worked hard all winter about that and, as you see, it worked out well, very well. I was quite pleased with this. Then I just tried to split my race into a kind of rhythm to be fast when I had to be fast and not overdrive the car when it was unnecessary. Obviously then we had the safety car situation and unfortunately we've just been told that the marshal did die and, obviously, we are all shocked about this and we have to look out what is possible from our side to what support we can give, but certainly everybody is very much down for this situation.

Q:
David, a quick word from you....

David Coulthard:
Well, obviously, the over-riding story of the race is as Michael's just mentioned, the fatality of the marshal and I think on behalf of all the drivers our thoughts go out to his family and we need obviously study how we can improve track safety to these people who give their time to enable us to go racing. That to one side, I had a fairly straightforward race to pick up six points, but that seems pretty insignificant when there is loss of life involved.

Q:
Thank you David, and now Rubens....

Rubens Barrichello:
Well, to score some points to begin with is quite good, but we're definitely not happy because of what Michael and David said. It's very bad when a colleague that is there for you happens to be in an incident like that, so my thoughts are with him and his family, and there is no way we can make up for this race.