"I am sure we will talk a lot before this Sunday’s race," continued the Brazilian, when asked about the possibility of further team orders in Monaco. "But I am not thinking about that now. I am here to race and to try and win. My time is coming, even if I have not scored many points this season. What matters is how I feel in my mind. I feel I won the race in Austria and I am happy about that. In Austria, after I had been in the gravel twice in qualifying, I told myself I would not let Michael take pole! Then in the race, I was pushing hard at the start and so was Michael. Then, I managed to open a gap."

Rubens was asked if his strong performance this year was down to the F2002. "No, I don’t think so," he said, explaining that the difference came from within himself. "Remember I took my first pole of the season in the old car. The difference is that I changed my attitude from the last four races of the 2001 season, after the championship was already decided. I knew that it is difficult to race Michael, as he is very strong. Now I have two years experience of this situation and have had plenty of time to think about it during the long winter break. I understand that what matters is inside your mind. There have also been organisational changes; for example, this year I have a different race engineer. But it’s true that the F2002 is a very good car. I’ve had too many bad cars in my career not to admit that."