The Ferrari team announced today that they will take three of last year's F2001 cars to the Australian Grand Prix, the season opener. This has been widely predicted.

"The new car has proved to be very quick right from the start, but we do not have sufficient time at our disposal to be entirely sure about its total reliability for the first round of the season," said Jean Todt. "Therefore, we have decided to go to Melbourne with the F2001, which even in this winter's tests, has proved to be very competitive and reliable. We think it will be able to bring home valuable points for the championship. Next week, we will continue our on-track development of the F2002, as well as fine tuning the F2001 for the first race."

Another decisive factor will have been the relatively poor testing performance of the new Williams chassis, and the failure of McLaren to make progress with its Ilmor engine. With the superiority of the F2001 therefore still intact there seemed little point in rushing through the build and testing of the new F2002. The Scuderia's confidence certainly seems high.....

The 2001 car still seems superior to the new Williams' and McLarens.	Why show rivals the features of the F2002?

Ferrari continues testing the new car tomorrow, when Michael Schumacher will drive at Mugello. From Monday, the team will be in Imola for the first of three days testing, using both the F2002 and the F2001.

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