Frentzen: I never called Ferrari 'cheats'.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen must have felt that fate was against him when he found he had been selected for the FIA's Friday press conference in Malaysia, just days after inflammatory quotes attributed to appeared in the German press.

The Jordan driver has already professed his innocence in the furore that surrounded an article which claimed Frentzen had questioned the legality of Ferrari's engines and those supplied to Sauber and Prost, but faced the inevitable barrage of questions when he arrived at Sepang's media centre.

"The item of traction control in Formula One is not a new item, it has not been issued after Melbourne, it's always a discussion, but I have to say a general discussion," he opened.

"After Melbourne, there was some misunderstanding about my quotes, that I was saying that the Ferrari engines - no matter which driver - are running illegal traction control. This issue cannot be found in my words, in my home page or any interview - and I only said, when I was asked, that they have something that helps them to come better out of the corner, but it is a legal traction control.

"When people asked me, do you think it's illegal, I said I can't answer that question because the FIA has all the data about traction control, and whether it's illegal or not.

"Also we have the answer of Max Mosley, saying that there are teams running a system in Formula One which reduces wheelspin. It's a system which is not working together with wheelspin sensors. It's a normal, legal system - [the engineers] predict that wheelspin can happen, and you can programme this in the software, but it's not illegal. I was talking about this system, not illegal traction control.

"But there are some people who just simply ignored this item, and said 'Heinz-Harald said Ferrari was using illegal traction control'. So I clarified it again on my home page and obviously there's a lot of people a bit upset about it. But just listen to my quotes, make a one-to-one interview, or write properly about my home page. That's all I can say."

When asked about Michael Schumacher's response to the issue, made in Thursday's press conference, Frentzen tried to make out that perhaps the world champion had not had the full facts about the magazine interview.

"Well, I have to say I fully understand if Michael is [annoyed]," Frentzen responded, "How many of you people did write that I was claiming Ferrari was using illegal traction control? Nobody? I am very surprised he's said that, then. It was actually written in some newspapers that I said it's illegal traction control they are running. If he gets to know this then of course he is [going to be] pissed off. I don't know how he would realise it now that all the explanation has been made. I also haven't said that the FIA is not able to analyse if somebody is cheating. I haven't said that.

"This talk about traction control is a never-ending story anyway. Every interview I did before the season - at the launch or even after last year's season - there was always a question, what do you think about traction control coming into Formula One? And I always made the same comments.

"I said I personally feel sad about it. I like to race with... - and I am sure most of the drivers are in the same spirit - I think the best way in the future is having a normal system, nothing special, allowing the driver to control the wheelspin by himself. I think this is the spirit of the sport and should be the spirit of the sport in future. But I understand as well that in these days there are so many possibilities, electronics is so advanced that you can work and have a system which works similar to traction control like I explained before, which is 100 per cent legal. I think this is the point really, to say, where is the point to be legal or not to be illegal, and this is the job of the FIA.

"I personally believe that one day we'll get rid of all this shit and drive normally again. That would be my wish in Formula One, and I hope one day that the team owners and the FIA agree that."

Frentzen said on Thursday that he would make every attempt to speak to both Schumacher and Nick Heidfeld - the subject of the initial 'comments' - about the matter, in the hope of laying it to rest before this weekend's Malaysian GP.