Todt: New Ferrari Has Confirmed its Potential

Ferrari's new Formula One car lived up to expectations at the Spanish Grand Prix today with the World Champions' second front-row sweep of the season.

"The F2003-GA has confirmed its potential right from its very first appearance at a Grand Prix weekend," said sporting director Jean Todt. "Now we can expect a very tough race with, as usual, reliability and strategy playing key roles."

Five-times World Champion Michael Schumacher, on pole in Barcelona for the fourth year in a row, was asked to put into words the difference between the new car and the old F2002.

"It's faster," he replied simply. "Naturally the first time you come here with a new car there is a lot of extra work, a lot of things to do, to look at and to control and the guys have done a fantastic job."

Today's was the 53rd pole of Schumacher's career.

Ferrari launched their new car in February but held it back until the fifth round of the Championship because of reliability concerns. McLaren boss Ron Dennis, whose team have yet to bring out their new car, said the Ferrari was fast but not dramatically quicker than the old one.

"I see their car as an incremental improvement on what they had before, not a big step," he said.