De la Rosa expects Sauber improvement

Sauber had shown strongly throughout pre-season testing and was expected to challenge the likes of Williams, Renault and Force India for the final top-10 placings.

But de la Rosa and team-mate Kamui Kobayashi qualified just 14th and 16th at Sakhir, before both retired early in the race with mechanical problems.

De la Rosa admits the team's dissapointment with Bahrain, but expects the Melbourne circuit to suit his car better than Bahrain.

"The level of downforce should suit us more, so I am looking to Australia in a more optimistic way," he told AUTOSPORT. "Let's try and get some points there. We are not in a position to fight for wins, but we should be in a better position that we were in Bahrain.

"Generally we were slow all weekend, it was not a matter of only qualifying. But we know why we were uncompetitive in Bahrain - the new layout definitely didn't help. It was difficult because we were expecting to be more competitive.

"We found several issues, but then finally, although we didn't finish the race, I was actually quite happy with the pace. We could have fought with Rubens Barrichello and Robert Kubica for the last point so that is okay, that is acceptable, but we were expecting a lot more."