Schumacher promises Ferrari improvement.

Michael Schumacher refuses to give up on his championship dream, despite McLaren seemingly having the upper hand as the season nears its conclusion.

The German was again out-paced by his silver rivals at the Monza test yesterday [Thursday], but insist that the Scuderia has further developments ready to be incorporated into the F1-2000. The revised engine used at Spa failed to produce the sort of improvement that Schumacher had been looking for, but he remains confident that there is more to come from the car.

''We have not exploited the car's potential fully and properly,'' he told Reuters news agency, ''and that is the thing which we are now working on. We have some steps coming and, if they are what I believe, then we can still have great success this season.

Schumacher's former team-mate Eddie Irvine has warned that Ferrari would not be able to match McLaren at either Spa or Monza, but the German refuses to believe that the Woking team will that much better when the 14th round of the championship arrives in Italy next week.

''There are no particular circuits on which we are better or worse,'' he insisted, ''Our big challenge is simply to get the best from the car all the time.''

Schumacher went particularly well in Malaysia and Japan when he returned from injury last season and, with the unknown of Indianapolis following Monza, he knows that he may only have to weather the storm in front of the fanatical tifosi next weekend before his campaign gets back on track. He currently trails new championship leader Mika Hakkinen by six points.