Eddie Irvine is looking forward to this weekend's race in San Marino (Imola). After the last race, where he was second, he thinks he can do well again.

Irvine said: "I'm counting down the seconds. Only the McLarens are ahead of me. The other number two drivers at Williams (Frentzen) and Benetton (Alesi) are both far behind. That means that I'm doing my job at Ferrari, which is to earn points for the constructors championship and also take some away from Schumacher's direct rivals."

Because it's 'a home Grand Prix' for Ferrari make's it just the more interesting: "This is a really important race and if it hadn't been for the morale boost in Buenos Aires, I'd be feeling a bit uneasy. Instead, I feel relaxed and I'm convinced I can do well again. It went fairly well last year, with Michael coming second and me fourth. This time we could try for even more because the car is better than last year's and the crowd will really get behind us. I was calm about things even before Argentina because I knew I wasn't responsible for what happened to me in the first two races, and above all because I knew the team had complete faith in me. And there's another reason why I feel good now, which is that we've fixed the problem with the brakes which had been given me trouble in practice at Interlagos and Buenos Aires.

He added: "Believe me, it's not easy to drive when you know the brakes aren't working properly and you know there's a risk of spinning the car."

The Tyrrell team will not be using the new ED5 Ford engine this weekend. There were still some technical difficulties. The team was happy to announce two new sponsor deals: European Aviation Group, which is a small airline who will transport the Tyrrell team from now on, and Champion Spark plugs.