Thursday March 9th, 2000

McLaren team boss Ron Dennis accused motor racing's world body FIA of favouring Ferrari, refuelling the bitter war between Formula One's leading teams.

Dennis told a news conference on the eve of Friday's first practice session for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix that he believed FIA was biased towards the Italian team because it did not want his team to maintain their domination of the sport.

Dennis said he had come to the conclusion after Ferrari were awarded last year's constructor's title despite its cars being disqualified from the Malaysian Grand Prix for breaching regulations, a decision that was later overturned on appeal.

"I don't have animosity toward Ferrari, I don't particularly have any animosity to the governing bodies and the decisions they choose to take because I'm a realist," Dennis said.

"The fact is this is a sport where people like to see people occasionally winning and that's in contrast with our own objective to win every single race.

"It's inevitable that in areas of judgement, the judgement's always going to go against us because it's good for the sport."