Raikkonen cautious with Bahrain predictions

McLaren endured a poor start to their winter preparations after being hit by constant engine problems with the new Mercedes V8 unit.

The team, however, have made progress in recent weeks and look to be among the favourites to fight for victory in Bahrain.

Raikkonen, who finished second in last year's Championship, says the MP4-21 feels quick, but the Finn is staying cautious until the real action starts.

"The car has felt good on track and is quick, which can be seen from the improvements in laptimes of more than three seconds," said Raikkonen.

"Of course I want to carry on from our performance last year and be challenging for race wins, however we will only see where we are in Bahrain after qualifying."

McLaren's Formula One CEO Martin Whitmarsh echoed Raikkonen's thoughts, warning the competition this year will be very hard.

"Despite initial work beginning on MP4-21 in August 2004 and the car completing around 8,700 test km, as always, relative performances cannot be truly judged until the first few races have been run," said Whitmarsh.

"I expect there will be a number of teams challenging for the titles. Kimi and Juan Pablo alongside the entire team and our partners will battle hard and are looking forward to the challenges ahead."

Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug says the team's improvement following the hard start to winter testing has shown their strength.

"The start with the new MP4-21 at Barcelona on 23rd January was not trouble-free and in the beginning we were not where we wanted," said Haug. "However, in the following five and a half weeks or about 40 days until the final test at Valencia on 1 March, our team showed what it's capable of, be it chassis or engine wise."