McLaren Want Closer Alliance to Fight Ferrari

With 50 podium finishes in a row, 12 wins in 14 races and a string of records and championships, Ferrari have hardly been troubled by their Formula One rivals recently.

But it became clear at Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix that strategic alliances are being mooted to try to alter the balance of power. Williams and McLaren, the only teams other than Ferrari to win this year, share the same tyre supplier Michelin and could work even more closely together to beat the Bridgestone-equipped Italians.

"We're working bloody hard to beat them (Williams) and they're working very hard to beat us. So we're not going to share everything," said McLaren managing director Martin Whitmarsh at Spa.

"But where there's a clear common interest, and there's none more obvious than tyres at the moment, then we (Williams and McLaren) are going to work together."

Tyres have been crucial in Formula One this season with Bridgestone winning the war hands down as Ferrari, Constructors' World Champions for four years in a row, break record after record. Michelin have been stronger in qualifying but unable to translate that on race day.

Ferrari have been racing in a league of their own, with Michael Schumacher's record 10th win of the season in Belgium last weekend reinforcing that dominance.

Michelin motorsport boss Pierre Dupasquier, who worked with Ferrari in the late 1970s when they were also winners, made a wry observation when it was put to him at Spa that "if Michelin could get it right" they might have turned the Championship around.

"I think it's absolutely right. If you provide a tyre that is two seconds faster than anything else, it will give a big help to our partners," he said.

Common Interest

McLaren's Whitmarsh, whose team switched from Bridgestone to Michelin at the end of 2001, said the important thing was for the French manufacturer's top teams to pull together and called for more links with Williams.

"We've got to recognise that we've got a common interest to get on and work with development of the tyres," he said. "Providing we can harmonise our requirements then I think we can do a better job than one team. But clearly it requires us both to want the same things."

Winter testing will be a key time for such co-operation.

"I think we've got to take the next steps really," said Whitmarsh. "We've got to work stronger together to say 'look, here are the areas of common interest.' I think there's an awful lot of things where, when we speak to Williams and share some notes, actually we are much more closely aligned in our requests and our requirements."

McLaren boss Ron Dennis and Frank Williams are old friends, as well as determined rivals. Both run very British teams with German partners, Mercedes in the case of the former and BMW with the latter.

"If we can work with any team, it's Williams," said Whitmarsh. "The relationship between Williams and McLaren has always been competitive but with a tremendous amount of mutual respect and pragmatism.

"So if we could have a relationship that works in co- developing tyres with any team it would be with Williams. At all levels there is mutual respect."

"They are a team that I think has the same standards and the same approach to going motor racing as ourselves so on every front, not just on tyres, there's always been a strong alliance between the teams," said Whitmarsh.

He said co-operation might take the form of dividing up the test programme.

"It would be a case of "saying 'Okay, we trust the way in which you go about testing, we trust the feedback you're going to give us, so you go away and do some work on the wets or work on the tyres for Monza and we'll work on the tyres for Indianapolis.'

"I think everyone's sensible enough to realise that's the best way to work," he said.