AUGUST 15, 2000

Di Montezemolo urges team to rectify wheel-spin problem

FERRARI president Luca Di Montezemolo has urged his team's mechanics and engineers to rectify the wheel-spin problem that both Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello complained of at the start of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Di Montezemolo wants the team to solve the problem and prevent McLaren's Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard getting better starts.

"I'm sure that their (McLaren) system is better than ours," said Di Montezemolo. "There's a human element involving the driver and a technical element, which must be the right dosage of power or something like that. We must work on that with our engineers."

Di Montezemolo said he was particularly impressed with Hakkinen's recent starts, especially after watching the Finn beat pole-sitter Schumacher into the first corner from third on the grid at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

He added: "I have to congratulate McLaren. They have clearly found a way of getting a better start than us. In the last two races, Hakkinen has rocketed away. It is now our job to catch them up."