Friday March 1st, 2002

Ferrari's 'old' Formula One car may not be as old or as fast as it seems, according to Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya.

The Williams driver was fourth fastest in the first free practice session of the 2002 season on Friday while Ferrari's Michael Schumacher was a second and a half faster on an afternoon dominated by the scarlet cars.

But, while Montoya was using the new FW24, World Champion Schumacher was in last year's F2001 after his Italian team decided to leave the new car at home because of reliability concerns.

"They've probably got this year's wings, a lot of this year's equipment - it's definitely not all last year's," said Montoya, tipped by many insiders as Schumacher's likely main rival this year.

"It's not last year's car, it's the last race of last year's car. We'll see. I don't think it's as quick as it looks. I hope, actually. More like hope."

Ferrari sporting director Jean Todt was pleased with what he called "business as usual for a race weekend Friday" and warned that lap times were likely to come down significantly in Saturday's qualifying.

"I am sure this evolution of the F2001 we have brought here to Melbourne can do well in tomorrow's qualifying, even compared with the new cars being run by the other teams," the Frenchman said.

Schumacher, winner in Melbourne for the past two years, said he was surprised by the gap between Ferrari and their rivals.

"But, as usual on Friday, you can never be sure about what fuel loads teams are running," he added.

Published at 09:08:24 GMT