BMW stay cautious for Australia

The German squad has been tipped by many of their rivals as one of the teams to look out for in Melbourne following impressive performances in winter testing, especially over long runs.

Despite their pace, however, BMW have suffered their share of reliability problems, and Theissen is not making any predictions for the first race of the year.

"Last year we put in a very good performance in Albert Park, and it would be nice if we had something to celebrate once again on Sunday evening," said Theissen in a team preview.

"As ever, it is difficult to make predictions. Our rivals have been generous with praise at times, but we also had a few problems in testing.

"As always, it is a race against time to get the car ready for the first race of the season," he added.

German driver Nick Heidfeld echoed his boss' comments, saying the team's main priority in Australia should be to make it to the end of the race.

"We were pretty quick in testing, but unfortunately not that reliable, so for us the most important thing in the first race of the season will be to get to the finish," said Heidfeld.