Sunday March 12th, 2000

By Timothy Collings

Ferrari celebrated a perfect start to the Formula One season on Sunday and eased their early fears about reliability while McLaren hit engine problems and scored no points.

"It is a good outcome for us when you consider how difficult we made qualifying for ourselves. We made a bit of a hash of it then," said technical director Ross Brawn.

"But this was good.

"We were confident we had the reliability in the car but it is always a worry when you come to the first race.

"We proved what we are made of even if it was more a case of reliability that outright performance, by the drivers or the car, that won us this race," he added.

"At the start of the race, Michael (Schumacher) and Mika (Hakkinen) were trading fastest laps, but in the end it was a case of our reliability which worked."

As Brawn enjoyed victory, Ferrari's sporting director Jean Todt was recovering from a bear-hug from Michael Schumacher who was back to his best.

It was the 36th win of Schumacher's career and his first on Australian soil in 10 attempts as well as his first since he broke his leg at Silverstone last July.

"Absolutely fantastic for us and for the whole team," said Todt. "A one-two result by our new driver line-up in the opening race, it is a dream finish.

"I was very worried about our reliability, but we got the result we wanted. Now, this has given us an opportunity which we must do our best to exploit."

Schumacher warned that he needed to improve his starting technique before the next race in Brazil in two weeks time.

"We have done a lot of work on starts, but obviously not enough so we must do more. But we are going to work hard on everything now and I am really looking forward to this season so much," the German said.

"I feel very fresh and ready, the car is great to drive and I enjoy it so much I am already looking forward to the next race."