Over the course of the last fourteen months, most of Jean Todt's post-race media briefs have been fairly dour affairs, the Frenchman attempting, usually unsuccessfully to put a brave face on things.

Today however, he has a definite spring in his step, as he enters the room he is smiling, and why shouldn't he be? Michael Schumacher has just notched up his second consecutive win, with able support from Felipe Massa, while his son Nicholas' GP2 team, with able support from Lewis Hamilton, won both of the Nurburgring rounds.

The sun is shining, Todt is beaming, indeed the little Frenchman gets proceedings underway by teasing the assembled journos.

"He," pointing to an Italian journalist who had been whispering in his ear, "was making some guesses about who was going to drive for us next year," smiles the Frenchman

"Was he right?" shouts a journalist.

"Ask him," Todt replies, with a wink. "But normally he's not very right, most of the time."

In a masterpiece of understatement, one of the journalists declares: "It has been a good weekend for the Todts…"

"It has been a very good weekend for Ferrari, which is what matters and I'm very pleased about the result," smiles Todt. "Saying that, I'm very happy and proud of my son because he's doing the job, he only has my name, but he's doing the job and very well."

It's pointed out that even though Ferrari won, the result was still very close: "In a way it's good for the championship to have big competition," Todt responds. "For us, what does matter is that finally we can score important points, we can win races and maybe have a few strong teams can go in our direction in the future. But saying that, it's not a surprise to see at least three very strong teams in the championship at the moment."

Some say that due to the 'tyre war', the remainder of the season could be a case of 'swings and roundabouts', at least in terms of wins?

"What is true today, considering the input of the teams, may not be true in five Grands Prix, because we know how important it is to develop the car during the season, so it will be very important to make a significant development possibly for each Grand Prix," says the Frenchman. "We know how important the tyres are, so there's a big competition among the teams, it's a big competition among the tyre manufacturers, so I don't know what can come out when it will be hotter or when the situation will be different. We don't know what can happen."

So, which win was more pleasing, this one or the one in Imola? "Both of them were very good," he laughs. "But maybe the next one."

There had been speculation that Ferrari was always going to be competitive at Imola, but the 'Ring win will have come as more of a surprise for the Maranello outfit's rivals.