Trulli: Ferrari and McLaren a step ahead

The two tops teams were clearly ahead of their rivals last year and have also been the pace-setters during winter testing.

Trulli believes that if Ferrari's and McLaren's cars prove reliable, reaching the podium will be very hard for anyone else, and not just for his Toyota team.

"Let's be clear, if the two Ferraris and the two McLarens finish a race it will be extremely difficult for any other team to get on the podium, not just Toyota," Trulli told the official Formula One website.

"There is still a gap between our car and the very top teams, but I expect we will be competitive so we will go to every race expecting to score points."

Trulli, however, is confident Toyota will take a step forward this year, having been encouraged by the performance of the TF108.

"We have done a lot of laps with the TF108 due to the fact it has been very reliable and this has given us a lot of information," he added. "I have worked a lot on set-up to make improvements and we have made good progress, but there is still more to come.

"The TF108 is completely different to last year's car and from a driver's point of view it is an improvement because it has better stability and it gives you the confidence to push harder.

"We still have a lot of work to do but the TF108 has a lot of potential, we know which areas to work on and we are all very motivated."