Motor Sport: Justin Hynes hears four F1 drivers - including the man himself - give their verdicts on why Michael Schumacher has struggled so far this season

Friday morning in Imola. As Giancarlo Fisichella, two weeks late, receives his Brazilian Grand Prix trophy to become the first Italian driver to claim a grand prix victory in 11 years, most of the pitlane looks on. Most, but not all.

In the Ferrari garage, activity is frenetic. No sooner has Fisichella been handed his prize than Ferrari's pit crew are staging a mock pitstop, Michael Schumacher's F2002 being pushed into positions for the crew to change tyres, clamp on the fuel nozzle, sweep clean the sidepods. Business as usual. Nothing left to chance. Every eventuality mapped.

Except that behind the ruthless pursuit of the eradication of error, mistakes have occurred. Circumstances long excised from the Ferrari manual of possible outcomes have returned to haunt the team and it has slumped to its worst start to a season in six years. And, at the heart of those previously eradicated errors, has been Michael Schumacher.

Since Schumacher collected Ferrari's first driver's championship title in 21 years, in 2000, Ferrari has become used to the German's relentless reliability. Prior to the start of this season, Schumacher had been on the podium at every race since the Italian Grand Prix of 2001. Indeed, Schumacher hadn't experienced a technical failure since the German Grand Prix of the same year.

Until the start of this season, Schumacher had ceased to figure in Ferrari's reckoning of potential problems. Pit-stop mock-ups continued apace, but the efficiency of their star driver was a given.

That has changed. For the first time in years the word crisis is mentioned in connection with Ferrari. And, perhaps most startling of all, there is talk of Schumacher being vulnerable under pressure, that the stereotypical Teutonic resolve cracks in the heat of battle.

Much of it is being put down to the sport's new rules. With Saturday's qualifying session no longer a demonstration, over 12 ever-more-finely honed laps, of fastest man in fastest machine, Schumacher has struggled.

The struggle, it has to be said, is relative. Schumacher is still blindingly quick over one hot lap, astonishingly composed when deep in the midst of that single opportunity to stake a claim to a meaningful grid position.

There's no doubt about the champion's ability to wrest the maximum from himself and his machinery when occasion demands.

If there is difficulty, it comes, some believe, when Schumacher fails to start from the front row, when he has to battle for position with the pack.

In Malaysia, Schumacher qualified third, on the second row, behind the twin Renaults of Jarno Trulli and pole-winner Fernando Alonso.

Trulli and Alonso are aggressive racers, but with the suspicion of a light fuel load on board both Renaults hanging in the air, pragmatism dictated a strategy, for Schumacher, of wait and see. Consolidate third and do away with the Renaults when their inevitable earlier stops occurred.

It didn't work that way. Into turn one, Schumacher's legendary focus deserted him and, under pressure, he attempted an impossible move around the outside of Trulli and succeeded only in dismissing himself and the Italian to the gravel.

The mistake cost Schumacher a drive-through penalty and any chance of the race. He finished sixth.

Two weeks later, in Brazil, the German, under pressure to push through into the top echelon of the race order, erred. In turn three, where several drivers had already come a cropper, Schumacher - despite the presence of double waved yellow flags to promote extreme care - miscalculated and aquaplaned off track, into the barriers and out of the race.

"I went too fast," he admits. "But how fast is too fast? It's impossible to know with that level of aquaplaning. I was off the line as I went into the corner and I understood the yellow flags, to take it easier, but it wasn't enough."

Behind the burnt umber lenses of designer sunglasses, his eyes dare you to challenge his reading of the situation. The admission of guilt is there, but beware of reading anything more into it.

Others disagree. David Coulthard, perhaps Schumacher's most persistent rival over the past few seasons, also believes Schumacher has flaws that can be exploited.

"I do think that Michael shows weakness under pressure and he does make mistakes in those situations," says Coulthard.

"Because of Ferrari's dominance last season it wasn't always apparent, but this season it has been so. It's obviously encouraging for the rest of us and makes it all the more important for us to stay competitive, put that pressure on and beat him."

Jacques Villeneuve, a frequent racing and verbal thorn in Schumacher's side and a victim of the champion's vulnerability to pressure when Schumacher attempted to run Villeneuve off the track in 1997's championship decider at Jerez, is, however, unsure of the significance of Schumacher's early season jitters.

"Ferrari's had a lot of bad luck so far and we all know that Michael has made a lot of mistakes in the past, but I don't think Michael's under any more pressure," says the BAR driver. "If you've won as many races as Michael has that kind of pressure is not an issue. There's no more on him now than there ever has been."

Schumacher's Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello insists the champion has not been hampered by the ill-luck. "I don't think this has got him down. I think it's just more of a challenge for him."

Schumacher is with Barrichello and denies there is a problem. He will concede to being under more pressure in the pack, but not to it affecting his racing.

"To have competitors around me does make it more difficult," he says carefully. "But, equally, you could say that in Brazil, for example, being in front and having to clear a line through all the water for the others following would have been as difficult."

He also denies that the revised qualifying rules, which have lessened his dominance of the grid, are a factor in his race performances. Asked if he believed Ferrari would be leading from the front if the old rules still applied, Schumacher pointed to other factors in the outcome of races.

"If you look at Australia we were on the front row and then the weather came into play," he said. "In Australia and Brazil the weather played a large part in it. The rules didn't influence the situation, the weather did. There have been disappointments and things haven't worked out, but it doesn't mean things are going to continue that way."

Yesterday at Imola, as Ferrari's back yard basked in perfect conditions, Schumacher answered some of the questions, topping the timesheet ahead of Barrichello and half a second faster than his Williams-driving brother Ralf.

As last man out today, it's the perfect opportunity to restore his previously untouchable leading-from-the-front status. But, as strategies vary into today's final qualifying session, more variables come into play.

They have been the unquantifiables Ferrari has been unable to deal with so far and which have put Schumacher into positions where errors occur.