Ferrari boss Jean Todt has tipped the world champions to bounce back from a poor start to the season and retain their constructors’ crown by the end of the year.
The Italian team, who have won the past six constructors’ titles and the past five drivers’ crowns with Michael Schumacher, chose to start the season with a modified version of their old car and found themselves outpaced by their rivals.
They managed only second place with Brazilian Rubens Barrichello in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, while top rivals Renault claimed victory and third place with a dominant performance.
But Todt promised: ”It is part of our lives to fight on, to win. We are working for Ferrari, which is a big team, a big honour and we have a big responsibility. So, we must deliver.
”And, of course, we like to deliver. We have a very good group of people, very strong, all working very well together. I would say that we are still a very strong team.
”We are motivated and we are not to be underestimated. On top of that, we like Malaysia, we’ve always been very successful here and will be looking forward to doing it again.
”I see no reason why we cannot do so again. But, having said that, I think we need to see three or four more grands prix this year before any conclusions should be drawn.”
Schumacher has admitted he is eagerly awaiting the arrival of his new F2005 machine, which will be introduced, at the latest, for the fifth race of the season.
But the German driver, who finished 16th in second practice in Malaysia on Friday, insisted he is still happy to drive the F2004M and said he is convinced it can do the job at Sepang this weekend.
”It is hard to say [where we are] — but looking at Renault, McLaren and the others, I don’t think we are too bad,” said Schumacher. ”Looking at Rubens’s times and my times, it is going to be very, very close.
”I had most of the work to do today and everything went well on my programme. We did a full tyre assessment and it has all gone quite well. I am very happy with what we have done today.
”Here you have to be very careful and look at things like tyres and fuel — and [the modified F2004 car] may be an old lady, but she is still looking pretty good and pretty fast to me.”
Barrichello spun out of the second session of the day and although he was able to get back out on track once his car had been returned to the pits, he completed less than 10 laps in the allotted hour.
But Schumacher is not worried by his teammate’s lack of preparation time and is more concerned that the high temperatures, which had been tipped to damage cars, is making it difficult for the drivers to stay on track.
”I am not worried about tyres here and I am not worried by the engine either,” said Schumacher. ”We were carefully checking the temperatures and didn’t see anything we felt we had to seriously worry about at all.
”But the track is very, very slippery but I think that is just because of the temperatures and the heat.
”It is very hot, and when you have 50 degrees [Celsius] track temperature or more it really makes it slippery for the tyres and that is why you had a lot of spins and incidents.” — Sapa-AFP