|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
Formula One
|
|
CART
|
|
IRL
|
|
NHRA
|
| |
|||
| Sunday, February 4 |
|||
| Ferrari strong; Minardi still incomplete Reuters | |||
|
LONDON -- The Formula One countdown entered
its final month on Sunday with Michael Schumacher and world
champions Ferrari already showing their competitive edge in
preseason tests.
Schumacher set a lap record at Ferrari's own Fiorano track
in the new F2001 on Saturday while Brazilian teammate Rubens
Barrichello set the fastest time yet at Barcelona's circuit in
last year's car.
"I think we can be very pleased by the times but we should
be even more pleased by the reliability," the German said after
earlier impressive times on Friday.
"In all my career, I have never had a start with everything
working so well from the outset," Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport
newspaper quoted him as saying.
The first race of the season is in Melbourne on March 4 and
Schumacher said he expected it to be a familiar story of Ferrari
against McLaren, who unveil their new MP4/16 challenger in
Valencia on Wednesday.
The two teams won every race between them last season and
took the lion's share of the points.
"But I think we will see more teams winning races,"
Schumacher said. "I don't know which but others will have a
chance of victory.
"Maybe my brother Ralf will have a chance with the Williams.
I see also Sauber and Prost are strong and they are to be
mentioned along with Jordan."
Sauber, with the youngest lineup in Formula One, have
Ferrari 2000 specification engines as do Prost.
Benetton heads for Venice Ferrari will continue testing in Italy next week, with Schumacher scheduled to test the new car at the Mugello circuit before being awarded the honorary citizenship of Ferrari's home city of Modena on Tuesday evening. Barrichello is also due at Mugello. McLaren will get down to serious business in Spain with their new car after giving some fresh faces a chance in the old car at Jerez last week. Britons Darren Turner and Gary Paffett, last year's McLaren Autosport young driver of the year, both had outings as did Italian F3 driver Giorgio Pantano. Benetton will be bucking a trend on Tuesday, going against the season's fashion for low-key launches with what promises to be a spectacular unveiling of their B201 on an island in the Venice lagoon. The car will have a revolutionary new Renault V10 engine but Italian Giancarlo Fisichella warned last week that it was still too early to say how it would perform. Benetton will be testing at Estoril in Portugal next week with other teams using Michelin tires. The Prost team will test its new AP04 chassis. "There's a lot to be done. In the first three races we will not be competitive but then there will be a big improvement," Fisichella told the Gazzetta last week. One more piece of the jigsaw should be fitted into place in Italy on Tuesday -- the day the Minardi team says it intends to name one of its 2001 drivers following Australian Paul Stoddart's takeover. He is expected to be young Spaniard Fernando Alonso, who tested at Vairano in Italy on Saturday, with the second driver to follow a week later. Minardi is the only team yet to name its lineup. If Alonso is confirmed, he will be the fifth Formula One newcomer on the grid in Melbourne, not including the returning French driver Olivier Panis at BAR. | |
||
|
|