Title push spurring Ferrari's 2003 design

Ferrari's sporting director Jean Todt says that his team's domination of Formula 1 is spurring his design team on to build an ever better car for 2003

Todt's star driver Michael Schumacher can wrap up the drivers' championship title at Magny-Cours next weekend, and he says the momentum of 2002 will carry over into next year's car.

"Concentrating on 2002 helps us for 2003, so we have already started on the 2003 car and engine," said Todt. "We know it's a lot to do with the tyre development programme together Bridgestone because it's not only the result of Ferrari work, Ferrari input, it's the result of a combination of what we do with our technical partners and of course, Bridgestone."

Despite his optimism for the future, Todt has warned against complacency, especially as Ferrari has been beaten to pole position by Williams-BMW's Juan Pablo Montoya for the last four races.

"It's a world where things change very quickly," he said. "On Saturday, Montoya did a very good qualifying lap, he was in front of us, so we were in difficulty. On Sunday, they were in difficulty, but tomorrow we could be in difficulty again. We just focus and try to be on top of everything and prepare good cars, good engines, work on tyre development, have a very good team, very stable and just don't make any compromise."