While admitting that his performance in China was not all that it might have been, Michael Schumacher says the ongoing media criticism goes with the job.

Once the German revealed that he was returning to F1, it was obvious that he would be in a lose/lose situation, damned if he returned and beat the young pretenders, damned if they beat him.

The media has been harsh on the seven time champion, particularly in Britain, where, other than revelling in being able to bash Johnny foreigner, particularly one who has history, sticking it to the German is easier than having to takes sides in terms of Hamilton and Button at McLaren.

Speaking ahead of the Spanish GP weekend, a weekend in which his team has spared no effort in trying him to provide him with a car more to his liking, the German admitted that the race in Shanghai was a low point for him.

"In China certainly my performance hasn't been good," he told reporters. "I think it stuck out particularly there whereas at other races things were on the right trend.

"I'm very optimistic that things will go in the right direction," he continued. "I'm pretty quiet and relaxed about what is going on. Yes, I know that the car is not perfectly suiting me right now but I haven't expected to come here and sit in and blast everybody away. It's a process and the process is going absolutely good. It's like stock markets, they have a trend upwards and occasionally they have a reset. So China was my reset and we'll see where it goes from there."

Referring to the media coverage of his return, he said: "Even in the moments when I was successful, I had various moments when things weren't going too well and I was similarly criticised. It's the natural situation and the time and world we are living in.

"In winter when I announced my comeback, everybody was enthusiastic and it was great. And now I haven't been performing to some expectations, but within my expectation, it goes down. I get criticised. Next time I am up on the podium I'm sure that the same people will be very enthusiastic again. That's our life, it's emotion and we live for those emotions."

While some say that this weekend's Grand Prix could be the deciding factor in terms of his future in F1, the German wasn't so sure.

"Some like to say that now I have the car, now I have to perform and now it should be fine and if not etc..." he said. "I am thinking less this way because it's going to be the first time we work this car, and only after do we understand what is the positive and what is the negative about it. Again, I just sort of feel pretty positive that I will follow the trend of up to Malaysia and not what happened in China."