Ferrari, McLaren set for another year of rivalry

Timothy Collings

Even if his win in Sunday's Australian Grand Prix was marred by the death of a marshal, Michael Schumacher and Ferrari still managed a performance that suggested only McLaren will be capable of matching them this year.

As the dust settled after the season-opener at Albert Park and the 128,500 crowd drifted home, the Ferrari and McLaren garages were as usual beseiged by the media in a signal that the same old show goes on.

The Ferrari camp, delighted at their victory but saddened by the tragedy of the marshal's death, were in a sombre mood after the race.

"It is a very tragic event when someone who gives their time to our sport suffers like this in this way," said technical director Ross Brawn.

"It is a very tragic day and our thoughts all go out to his family. It is very difficult for me to comment on how we can make things safer.

"There are things that have been done since last year -- the extra security on the wheels for instance, particularly after what happened at Monza, and you could see from Michael's accident on Friday that the wheels did not come off the car."

The marshal was killed after Canadian Jacques Villeneuve's BAR, having hit the rear of German Ralf Schumacher's Williams spiralled into the barriers at close to 200 kph. The marshal was struck by a wheel among the flying debris.

"That impact today was so severe it is difficult to know what you could do. Very difficult indeed," Brawn continued.

Talking about his satisfaction at seeing the latest Ferrari F2001 car win first time out, he was only slightly less reticent.

"Effectively this has been the first race distance we have run with this car. Rubens managed one at Mugello, but for Michael it is the first," he said.

"He had to push very hard at the beginning, and I was pleased with the way the car was performing, but once the race was settled, effectively, we slowed the pace of the whole race down to go just as fast as we needed to just to be sure.

"But they (McLaren) were extremely competitive in the race and I am sure we have a very tough season ahead of us."

Tribute

Brawn said that Schumacher's success was a "tribute to all the work everyone has done at the end of a hard season.

"To produce the car they have done is fantastic," he added.

"I think and I know that Ron (Dennis, of McLaren) gets a bit frustrated when people talk about Ferrari's great strategy, but I get a bit frustrated when people talk about McLaren having a better car.

"I think we have a very good car and that (chief designer) Rory (Byrne) and the people involved have done a fantastic job.

"It is a good step up from what we had before and that car was able to win the championship.

"Clearly, it is going to be a very tight competition this year but as you could see the indications are that it is going to be McLaren and Ferrari again.

"McLaren will be tough. I don't know about revenge, but we are both pushing each other very hard."

Brawn said that the revised technical regulations introduced this year had been an interesting challenge to him and Byrne.

"They throw up a challenge to find different solutions, but for the teams with big resources, like McLaren and Ferrari, we tend to see it just as another welcome challenge.

"For the smaller teams, of course, it is difficult to find the right solution straightaway. But, for us, there is still a lot of room for us to find a lot of developments during the year," he concluded.

Ferrari's sporting director Jean Todt was also impressed with car's performance.

"This is probably the quickest car we have produced in the last few years and we know from now on what we have to do to improve it still further," he said.

Determination

While Ferrari oozed confidence, McLaren bristled with determination.

"We had the right strategy and Mika (Hakkinen) was well-positioned to optimise this advantage until his accident which was caused by a right front suspension failure," said team principal Ron Dennis.

McLaren's former world champion Mika Hakkinen crashed out of the race in second place after a suspension failure, but his Scottish team mate David Coulthard picked up the gauntlet and finished just behind Schumacher.

"David drove a great race and his overtaking manoeuvre to claim second was superb, combined with a well-executed race strategy. His result was well-deserved," he added.

"It's a close call between us and Ferrari and we are definitely in with a chance to fight for the championship, said Mercedes-Benz sporting director Norbert Haug.

"That's how I see it after today. I have to compliment David again for an extremely good job again. He was the driver of the race again. He overtook Barrichello fair and square. "We have some improvements and I am sure they have too. Ferrari are not miles ahead. It is again going to be a close fight."