Michael Schumacher has spoken out after reports last week suggested the German was unable to carry out much testing on his team's simulator due to motion sickness.

With the strict limits on on-track testing, teams are having to rely more and more on their state-of-the-art simulators, and claims that the seven-time champion feels unwell when using Mercedes version raised fears that the German might be in for another difficult season.

However, talking to the Daily Telegraph, he played down the talk. "I think almost all the drivers that I know have had it,2 hew said. "When we had our first simulator at Ferrari I had exactly this feeling already so it's nothing to do with age. People get used to it by going through certain processes."

The German believes his situation is not helped by the fact that his team is using an older style simulator, claiming that teammate Nico Rosberg suffered similar issues last year.

"We are developing it now but it will probably be another year before we can actually use it," he said, adding that he believes that in some quarters the effectiveness of simulators has been exaggerated. "As far as I understand there are some other top teams that have a simulator but make very little use of it. They don't use it to the extent that maybe McLaren or some other teams do.

"I think it's very limited what you can do with it and," he added, "anyway, you have to have the right one. There are not too many teams that have the right simulator. For us drivers the main benefit of them would be to get used to a track. But for me personally that has never been an issue. I don't see the big advantage of them."