Schumacher 'Concerned' about McLaren's Pace

World Champion Michael Schumacher says he is concerned about the impressive pace showed by the McLaren team during winter testing.

McLaren, who will start the new season with an updated version of their old MP4-17, have produced impressive times in pre-season testing and Schumacher admitted he had not expected such speed from the Mercedes-powered team who were third overall last year.

"Yes. I am concerned about their pace. The winter tests have been much closer than some people may have expected," Schumacher said at the launch of the new Ferrari F2003-GA.

Schumacher said that a combination of new rules and improving rivals would give fans more thrills after a one-sided season in which Ferrari won 15 of the 17 races. The system is expected to produce some races where the top names are spread across the grid but the German said that improving rivals would also give Ferrari a harder time.

"Qualifying will be an entertaining situation and make for a better show with a few surprises," said Schumacher of the new one-shot format. "I don't expect to match what we did last year, it would be too much to say we can do that again."

Schumacher was sceptical of suggestions that his domination - Ferrari have won the constructors' title for four years in a row and he has been champion for the last three - was turning fans off the sport.

"You have some countries where there has been a reduction in interest, although (I don't know) whether it is down to so-called 'not good show'," he said. "But there are other countries where there has been an increase in interest. In the end it is clear that certain changes have been made to improve the show and I think it will achieve those goals, whether it will be consistently or not depends very much on the competition coming from the other teams."

So-called electronic 'driver aids' will be outlawed from the British Grand Prix in July and Schumacher said he was not particularly pleased to see the hi-tech elements disappear.

"I am not a big fan of this. I like electronics because you can get the car close to perfection and drive without compromises. I am not looking forward to (the change) but then again everyone has it," he said.