Barrichello: Ferrari are ahead

The Honda driver, who left the Italian squad at the end of the 2005 season, reckons the Maranello squad are in front of McLaren and BMW, with the rest of the teams behind.

"People right now what they seem to be doing is different fuel at different stages of the day so you don't know if they are fast or not," Barrichello told this week's Autosport.

"Some of them are still running rear wings from 2006 which is a misleading factor ­ even if they are not quicker over a lap they are faster over a straight ­ so you really don't get to know their direction.

"What you can really see is that Ferrari is ahead of everybody else. It doesn't matter what they run ­ then quite closely McLaren and BMW. Of the rest, Renault seem good and sometimes not so good ­ is that a variation of fuel. But they should be there, then the rest come.

"I think we are in the top 10," added the Brazilian about his own team, who have failed to shine during winter testing despite their high hopes for the season.

The Japanese outfit are planning a major revamp of their RA107 car after it fell short on expectations.

Barrichello believes with the current package the team can opt to be in the top ten.

"Right now, there is something that we haven't discovered yet," he added. "We have a small problem with the braking stability that has to be addressed. So there is a big area to improve ­ an area where the car can be really competitive with work from the wind tunnel.

"Where do we stand? I think we're top 10 ­ anywhere from sixth to 10th in qualifying ­ and I think race pace is something that you really need to see, but the car has mechanically improved in traction."