Ferrari may start year with old car again

Speaking in his native South Africa, Ferrari chief designer Rory Byrne has said that the new F2003 will not run until the beginning of February. With the Australian Grand Prix taking place only a month later on March 9, Ferrari is unlikely to risk reliability problems in Melbourne and the following Malaysian GP and looks set to opt for this year's dominant F2002 for those races.

The team made an identical call this year by racing its 2001 car in the first two rounds, with Michael Schumacher winning in Australia. Rubens Barrichello had to stick with the F2001 until the fourth race of the season.

Speaking of the F2003, Byrne said: "We have refined this year's car, and it will run in early February. Even if we don't race it immediately, we will ensure that it builds on our successes.

"The F2002 was a completely integrated design, one which made small leaps in almost every engineering area over the F2001. We made improvements everywhere - some you could see, like in aerodynamics; some like suspension details, you could not because they were hidden."

Byrne added that the gearbox in particular was "special" on the F2002. "It was smaller and lighter than anything made before, and had faster, more positive shifting mechanisms over previous designs. This, I think, gave us our biggest single improvement."