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Monday, 8 July, 2002, 13:51 GMT 14:51 UK
Ferrari stay focused
Ferrari hope to make it a championship one-two
Ferrari are refusing to celebrate a championship win for Michael Schumacher until it is sealed - and warn they will not let up even when the title is clinched.
Schumacher leads the championship by 54 points after Sunday's British Grand Prix victory, his seventh win in 10 races this season. And he can land his fifth drivers' championship with victory in the French Grand Prix, if Rubens Barrichello and Juan Pablo Montoya both finish lower than second. But Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn admitted that the team would still be focused on winning races until the end of the season.
"We can win the championship in France, but we're not counting on anything until it happens," said Brawn. "But it's not just about championships - we want to win races. "Even if we are fortunate enough to do it that early we want to win races for the rest of the season." Schumacher would better Nigel Mansell's mark for the shortest time taken to claim the title if he wins at Magny Cours in two weeks' time.
The German and the Briton would both have clinched the championship after 11 races but this 17-race season is one grand prix longer than Mansell's 1992 campaign. If, and when, Schumacher does win this year's title he would also equal Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio's record of five world drivers' championships, set in the 1950s. But Ferrari insist they will continue to keep up the pressure and try to make it a one-two by helping Barrichello into second. The Brazilian leapfrogged into second place in the drivers' standings after his runners-up spot at Silverstone.
He is just one point ahead of Montoya, whose Williams team-mate Ralf Schumacher is one point further adrift. "We want Rubens to finish second and if he does then it will be a bonus," said Brawn, whose team have won eight of the 10 races. "But he deserves it. We will work very hard to help him finish second. "I remember last year when we won the championship in Hungary, the last few races were just as tough. "In the first race after Hungary I asked Michael "Does it feel any different?" and he said "no, it doesn't."
"The butterflies were there and it was just the same. We will try to carry on as we have done throughout. "Obviously, it's been a fantastic year, but it's very subtle between what we are doing and not doing. "Other teams are not as strong as they have been in some years, while they've also had problems and it seems to have worked in our favour. "This season doesn't seem any easier, although the results have been very good. A lot of the races we have been working very hard. "It is a season which has been quite difficult, it's just that the results have come.
"There have been one or two easy races - Barcelona was a straightforward race. But a lot of them have been tight." |
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