Schumacher: Mika is still my biggest threat

Ferrari ace Schumacher has won both of the opening races to lead Hakkinen by 19 points going into next weekend's Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos. The German spoke after testing at Barcelona in Spain today (Thursday) where he eclipsed Hakkinen by almost a second in his F2001, although Mika was driving a 2000-spec McLaren.

"McLaren are always going to be strong and I'm ready for them to fight back," Schumacher told Autosport.com. "I still consider Mika to be my main rival."

Hakkinen has already gone on record as saying that unless McLaren gets its act together soon, this year's World Championship will be unattainable. He has only taken one point this season, by finishing sixth in last weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix.

"Everybody is talking about us getting a better car once the season starts in Europe and I think we should," said Hakkinen. "But if we don't get it right there, then we're not going to get it right at all. It's a shame that we are losing precious points at the moment and that is because of the car problem."

Both Hakkinen and team mate David Coulthard, who lies joint-second in the points with Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello, tested at Barcelona as McLaren attempts to get to the root of its problems. Chronic understeer has been the bugbear of the Woking-based team so far this season.