Trulli: Ferrari may still dominate

Jarno Trulli has warned that Michael Schumacher and Ferrari could retain their dominance over the rest of the Formula 1 grid

The Italian, speaking at the launch of his new team Toyota's 2005 challenger - the TF105 - in Barcelona, admitted that the world champions may still be out of reach in spite of sweeping regulations introduced to cut costs and spice up the action.

"We are going to have to measure ourselves against the other Michelin teams," said Trulli. "Ferrari may still be out of reach."

Part of the new regulations now require drivers to complete the entire race distance on one set of tyres, and Trulli conceded that the Michelin teams still have a lot of work to do before the beginning of the season.

"There has been a lot of drop off in tyre performance which is something we need to work on," he said. "In this context, 70 per cent of the teams will be on Michelin next year and Ferrari may yet prove to be unbeatable. We just don't know yet.

"Michelin tyres were very strong in qualifying but generally competitive but Bridgestone tyres are strong too."

Toyota's technical director Mike Gascoyne also believes that tyres will play a central role in the outcome of races this year.

"The drivers who are able to look after the tyres best are the ones who will succeed most next year," said Gascoyne. "Ralf Schumacher is very good at that but so is Michael."