Raikkonen plays down favourite talk

The long-run pace of the F2008 in winter testing has pointed to the reigning champions having the edge over main rivals McLaren, but Raikkonen is not so sure about the situation.

"I don't know," he said, when asked if he thought Ferrari were the favourites. "I think we have a strong package, but we don't know how fast the others are. We will only see that in the race. We are quite happy with what we have done over the winter so we will see in Melbourne.

"I think we have good reliability. We had some small things last year that unfortunately stopped the car in the race but it can always happen."

Raikkonen made it clear, however, that he felt Ferrari were as well prepared as possible for the start of the season.

"We have done everything we can and it will be nice to get back racing again," he said. "In Melbourne we will see who is fast or not, because you cannot say from the tests. The times look close.

"Somebody goes fast one day and another guy another day. We will wait for a couple of weeks and we will know in qualifying. But I think McLaren are for sure strong, so we need to see how good they are in the race."

Raikkonen claimed that the F2008 was a step forward over its title-winning predecessor in all areas.

"I think the car is stronger everywhere. We've improved the rear end quite a bit and it seems to be working well with the tyres and everything."