Newey Promises Fresh Approach for 2002

McLaren technical director Adrian Newey has promised a fresh approach as his team bid to take the Formula One title from favourites Ferrari this year.

"I view it as an appropriate opportunity to throw things up in the air a bit and...if we are extremely lucky and skilful, then we can wrest the 2002 Championship," the Briton told Autosport magazine in an interview published on Thursday.

Newey said McLaren would finish no better than second this year if they stuck to the same formula.

"I think in 2001, after upsetting the form card in '98 and '99 when most people expected a Ferrari whitewash, we got a bit stale," he said.

Ferrari have been Constructors' champions for the last three seasons while four times World Champion Michael Schumacher won the drivers' crown in 2000 and 2001. McLaren and Briton David Coulthard were runners-up in 2001 after Mika Hakkinen was champion in 1998 and 1999.

Newey, who created a major stir last year with an aborted move to Jaguar, denied that he had distracted the team and suggested that Ferrari had scuppered two of McLaren's key technical developments before the start of the 2001 season. One was the use of beryllium in engines and the other a gearbox using a torque biasing differential system.

"As far as I can see, Ferrari wrote to the FIA and said they believed the system was illegal because it was banned in principle," said Newey in a reference to 2000. "For the first time, the FIA agreed to ban something, not because it was illegal to the letter of the regulations but because it was illegal to the principle of the regulations.

"I think it was a very dubious call and, yes, the plan was for that to have been our 2001 gearbox. Obviously it hurt us racing through 2001 with the 2000 gearbox, which was starting to be slightly aged and wasn't ideal packaging wise."

Newey said the ban on beryllium also damaged McLaren's chances, although the move had been flagged for some time.

"What is frustrating is that the power we had in 2001 was no more than the power we had in '98. We obviously need to improve on that," he said.

In an echo of Newey's allegations against Ferrari, McLaren boss Ron Dennis signaled another potential row when he suggested last weekend that another team had gone too far in their interpretation of the rules for 2002.