World champion Michael Schu-macher shrugged off suggestions he was under pressure on Thur-sday and presented himself instead as the hard man of Formula One.
Without a podium from two races this year, Ferrari's five times world champion said he could handle the heat after his worst ever start to a season.
"When the going gets tough, the tough get going. That's my thinking," the German told a news conference before Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos.
"At the moment things are going a little bit tougher and we become stronger," he said. "I'm not worried for what has happened.
"I know what did happen, I feel that as long as you can analyse it and understand it then you can still look ahead and we do look ahead," he said.
"The first two races are not too good. Still, we got eight points out of these not very good races for us and our time will come again."
Schumacher finished fourth in the season-opening in Australia after Ferrari made a poor tyre choice and had only himself to blame in Malaysia for a first lap collision.
The incident, in which he hit the rear of Jarno Trulli's Renault, left Schumacher sixth in the race and also sixth in the championship.
Australia was the first time since September 2000 that Schumacher had relinquished the championship lead and the first time since September 2001 he had finished off the podium.
"It will be a much tougher season, a much tighter competition and that's what we face," said the German.
Schumacher suggested that pressure was a double-edged sword and deflected claims from rivals such as McLaren's David Coulthard that he made more mistakes when under stress.
"I have the reputation of being great under pressure and I have the reputation of doing mistakes under pressure. So, take the one you like," he said.
The German said there had been no particular inquest at Ferrari after the disappointing first two races.
"We analyse and discuss all the races to be prepared for the next," he said. "But it was very clear what happened to us in the first two races and there was no need to get together particularly to change our strategy or our approach."
The opening races, rich in drama and surprise after rule changes, have been credited with reviving Formula One after a year of Ferrari domination when the Italian team won 15 of the 17 races last year.
Schumacher disagreed with the premise advocated by many fans last year that the sport had either become boring or was somehow in need of saving.
"In sport, not only in Formula One, there has always been certain kinds of dominance from either a tennis player or a team or whatever," he said.
Taiwan’s men’s A team last night defeated their counterpart B team 82-77 in their first showdown in the William Jones Cup at New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang Gymnasium. With four wins under their belt, Taiwan’s A squad — also known as the blue team, consisting of the national team’s main roster — lead the tournament, while Malaysia and the Philippines Strong Group-Pilipinas, who were not scheduled to play last night, are both undefeated with three wins each. Taiwanese-American teenager Robert Hinton, playing in his first William Jones Cup, led the scoring early in the first quarter, putting up nine points for the A
A chance encounter during a drunken night out was the unlikely catalyst for breaker Sunny Choi’s journey to the Paris Olympic Games. The 35-year-old American is to showcase her skills before a global audience in Paris when breaking makes its debut on the Olympic stage. Choi is the beneficiary of efforts to attract younger fans to the Olympics, a move that led to breaking’s inclusion for the first time. However, as Choi says, the Olympics was the last thing on her mind when she took up the sport. A freshman student at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, Choi stumbled into breaking
Teenage gymnast Shoko Miyata has been pulled from Japan’s team for the Paris Olympics after being caught smoking and drinking, officials said yesterday. The 19-year-old, a world bronze medalist and captain of Japan’s women’s gymnastics team for the Games, was sent home from their training camp in Monaco and admitted she had violated the squad’s code of conduct. “With her confirmation and after discussions on all sides, it has been decided that she will withdraw from the Olympics,” Japan Gymnastics Association (JGA) secretary-general Kenji Nishimura told reporters in Tokyo. Nishimura said the association had been told that Miyata was seen smoking in a
Former NFL receiver Jacoby Jones, whose 108-yard kickoff return in 2013 remains the longest touchdown in Super Bowl history, has died at the age of 40. The Houston Texans, Jones’ team for the first five seasons of his career, announced his death on Sunday. In a statement released by the NFL Players Association, his family said he died at his home in New Orleans. A cause of death was not given. Jones played from 2007 to 2015 for the Texans, Baltimore Ravens, San Diego Chargers and Pittsburgh Steelers, and he made several huge plays for the Ravens during their most recent Super