Schumacher: 'Ron should be worried'

Despite romping to an emphatic 1-2 in Melbourne with teammate Rubens Barrichello he says Ferrari have not yet got the better of their closest rivals.

But asked if a barrage of criticism from Ron Dennis in Australia was because the rival team boss was a worried man, the double champion replied: "He should be worried."

"Ron has always had problems losing races. We know that from the past and we can expect many more statements like the ones he made in Melbourne."

"Ron should look after his problems and we will look after ours."

Schumacher hit back at Dennis' claims that the Maranello machines are not as competitive as they claim to be.

"We are competitive. We are there. Our target before the season was to be competitive from the first race and we are.

"We have not overtaken McLaren but this is the first year we have been able to compete with them from the beginning."

After seeing Schumacher win and both his cars retire in Melbourne Dennis had launched into a series of attacks on Ferrari and its drivers.

He accused Schumacher of speaking "bull" by talking up Ferrari's competitiveness and he then slated the team by claiming Barrichello was a "sacrificial lamb" to help his Schumacher win.

He said Ferrari had thrown away the Brazilians chances of victory by putting on a two stop strategy.

Earlier in the weekend he had intimated that McLaren were fighting favouritism within the sport that wants to see a Ferrari driver win the world title.

Schumacher arrives in Sao Paulo leading the world championship knowing that he is yet to face a real test of McLarens strength because both of the Woking cars failed to finish in Australia.