Ferrari to Stop Development of Current Package

Ferrari will stop the development of their current car from now on and focus on 2005, according to the Italian squad's boss Jean Todt.

The World Champions need just nine more points in the six remaining races to clinch the constructors' title, while their star driver Michael Schumacher is 49 points ahead of the closest of his non-Ferrari rivals, BAR's Jenson Button.

Schumacher's teammate Rubens Barrichello, together with Button the only other driver with a mathematical chance of winning the title, is 36 points behind the German.

With both titles nearly in the bag, and with radical new rules expected to be introduced for next season, Todt said continuing with the development of this year's car would be pointless.

"We are on the right track for the two Championships. We've done a good job in Germany too, with perfect reliability and an excellent work by the entire team," Todt told Gazzetta dello Sport. "What is happening is truly extraordinary.

"Now all efforts will go towards next season's project: there is absolutely no reason why we should carry on working on developing the current package, unless this could be useful also for 2005."

The sport's governing body, the FIA, is aiming to introduce radical new measures for next year, in the hope of slowing the cars down and reducing costs. The measures are likely to be imposed if satisfactory alternative proposals had not been agreed by at least eight teams and presented by September 6.

Todt, however, said talks between the teams were progressing.

"The F1 technical working group has made some proposals to the FIA and it is now up to the FIA to establish whether these are enough or not," he said. "In the latter case they will make some modifications, but anyway I think I can say that we are moving in the right direction."