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Schumacher confident it will get better

SEPANG, Malaysia - Michael Schumacher is happy with how his comeback has gone after the season’s opening two races and vowed that it will get better, starting with a podium finish in Malaysia this week.

The seven-time world champion came out of a three-year retirement to race for Mercedes GP this year but has so far been outqualified and outraced by team-mate Nico Rosberg.

But the 41-year-old German said he had taken a lot of plus points out of the season to date.

“I have taken a lot of positives from the race weekend in Melbourne,” he said despite finishing 10^th in Australia after his car came to grief with Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari on the first lap.

“Whilst that might not be evident at first sight, when you look into the weekend more deeply, we did make some real improvements and have good reasons to be satisfied, just not from the actual result obviously.

“Analysing qualifying, both Nico and I could have been two or three places higher and with hindsight, my set-up was too conservative and too much focused on the race.

“Those better positions would have enabled us to fight closer to the front on Sunday.”

Schumacher, the winner of 91 races and who will start his 252^nd Grand Prix in Malaysia on Sunday, said all this boded well for Sepang.

“All of this means that we are not too far away and I am quite confident that there will be more to come,” he said.

“Going to Malaysia this weekend, we know that we have clearly improved our pace since Bahrain which is a good feeling.

“It was a lot of fun fighting it out on the track in Melbourne, even if it was just for one point, and I will enjoy fighting again in Sepang.”

Asked later where he expected to finish at Sepang, he told reporters: We are looking for a podium finish this weekend.”

Rosberg, who secured fifth in Australia, said the Mercedes car required aerodynamic and mechanical improvements, but he too was confident for the race ahead.

“We want to do what our main rivals — McLaren and Red Bull — are doing,” he said. “We have a lot of developments coming. We are not giving up.

“I think we have to go for the podium. For us as a team, a podium will be good,” added the 24-year-old son of Keke Rosberg, who was Formula One’s original flying Finn.

Team boss Ross Brawn said they were working hard to make the cars better and was hopeful that they could challenge on Sunday.

“The team performed well in Melbourne, even though we do not yet have the pace to be competing right at the front of the field,” he said.

“Four point finishes from the first two races puts us in third place in the constructors’ championship and we need to keep this momentum going and keep scoring points whilst we work on improvements to the car.”