Brawn: Ferrari Not to Ease Off

Ferrari are not about to ease off even though Michael Schumacher seems to have a fourth Formula One world title sewn up, according to the team's technical director Ross Brawn.

"Everybody at Ferrari is working in the same way that we have for the past five years because that's the only way we know how to work," Brawn said at the German Grand Prix on Friday.

"It's a delicate time, we've got a substantial lead in both Championships and we can only throw it away now. Whatever David (Coulthard) does, if we do a sensible job it's very difficult for him."

Schumacher leads McLaren's Coulthard by 37 points with 60 still up for grabs. That means he can afford to finish third behind Coulthard in every remaining race. If he wins his home Grand Prix on Sunday Schumacher will equal Alain Prost's record of 51 wins and will also be just one victory away from securing the 2001 title.

Brawn also said Ferrari had modified Schumacher and teammate Rubens Barrichello's cars for Sunday's race after the German's crash in testing at Monza last week. Brawn revealed that the front floor of the World Champion's car dropped onto the track before the second chicane at the Italian track.

"It's the first time that we've run the car at such high speed - 345 to 350 km/h - and of course that exerts a lot more load on those sorts of pieces so it's not a problem we'd seen at any other time this year. We reinforced the floors for the second day of testing for Rubens and we've done a lot of further modifications for here," added Brawn.

Schumacher escaped injury in the crash when his Ferrari hurtled into the guardrails at high speed, ripping off the front wheels and skidding into tyre barriers. The German said on Thursday he had a stiff neck and sore backside afterwards but was fit enough to play soccer this week.

Brawn said Ferrari would have a new aerodynamic package for the Belgian Grand Prix in September and would probably be racing a new engine in Sunday's race here.