Bahrain Grand Prix: Ferrari Rush in New Car
Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello will both drive the brand new Ferrari F2005 at the Bahrain grand prix on April 3.
Ferrari yesterday raised the world championship stakes by announcing that Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello would both drive the brand new Ferrari F2005 at the Bahrain grand prix on April 3.
The decision to use the new car was made after the team struggled in the first two races of the season with the interim F2004M, being comprehensively outclassed by the winning Renault R25s.
Schumacher could finish only a distant seventh in Malaysia on Sunday and Barrichello was forced to retire when his tyres wore down to the point that they had no tread left. Bridgestone, Ferrari's tyre supplier, subsequently assumed total responsibility for the car's poor showing in the first two races and has been working flat out to rectify the problem since the weekend.
It was originally intended that the Ferrari F2005's debut would be at the Spanish grand prix in Barcelona on May 8 but the surprising lack of form displayed by the old car saw the team redoubling its efforts to bring the F2005 in earlier after intensive testing at the Mugello track in Italy.
"The Mugello test in which both our race drivers drove the F2005 for the first time was a success," said Ferrari's managing director Jean Todt. "We will have two F2005s in Bahrain and the spare car will be one of the F2004Ms used in Australia and Malaysia."
The decision to use the new car was made after the team struggled in the first two races of the season with the interim F2004M, being comprehensively outclassed by the winning Renault R25s.
Schumacher could finish only a distant seventh in Malaysia on Sunday and Barrichello was forced to retire when his tyres wore down to the point that they had no tread left. Bridgestone, Ferrari's tyre supplier, subsequently assumed total responsibility for the car's poor showing in the first two races and has been working flat out to rectify the problem since the weekend.
It was originally intended that the Ferrari F2005's debut would be at the Spanish grand prix in Barcelona on May 8 but the surprising lack of form displayed by the old car saw the team redoubling its efforts to bring the F2005 in earlier after intensive testing at the Mugello track in Italy.
"The Mugello test in which both our race drivers drove the F2005 for the first time was a success," said Ferrari's managing director Jean Todt. "We will have two F2005s in Bahrain and the spare car will be one of the F2004Ms used in Australia and Malaysia."
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