Monday March 18th, 2002

World Champion Michael Schumacher said that his Ferrari team are under no pressure to use their F2002 car despite finishing only third at last Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix.

Claiming that they are still not convinced about the new car's reliability, World Champions Ferrari have used an updated version of last year's F2001 chassis in the first two races of the 2002 season, winning the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

The Italian team will test both cars this week and decide which one to take Brazil for next week's race, but Schumacher has claimed that there's no pressure on them to use the F2002 and revealed that he had not expected to score 14 points in the first two races with the old car.

"We are not under more pressure to use the new car," said Schumacher. "We took the old car to the first two races and did not really expect to have 14 points in our account at this stage of the season.

"To pick up four points is fine and I am happy and relaxed about it. The season is 17 races long and even if the car is not ready for Brazil we are going to take points from there for sure and the Championship is not going to be decided after the first three races."

Schumacher finished in third place at the Malaysian Grand Prix after clashing with Juan Pablo Montoya at the start of the race, but the German had started from pole position for the fourth time in four races at Sepang. His brother Ralf won the race with the Williams.

Published at 13:51:29 GMT