De la Rosa: McLaren will fight for title

"Frankly I don't know," de la Rosa said when asked if his team would be fighting at the top in Bahrain in less than four weeks time. "But I'm sure McLaren will be fighting for the title this year, even if we don't win the first race.

"In 2005 we also started slowly but we reacted after the third race and from then on we were the most competitive team on track.

"I'm sure something similar will happen this season and we will be able to win a lot of races," the Spaniard told Marca.

McLaren, runners-up last season, have been hindered in winter testing by problems with their Mercedes engine, but the German carmaker introduced a revised version in Jerez last week and the unit proved to be a step forward.

"Without a doubt it's superior to the first engine, but we have a lot of work to do," de la Rosa said. "It's a step forward, an important improvement in terms of horsepower, but we are in the initial phase where we have to see if it's reliable or not.

"We are going to try to complete two Grands Prix distances here (in Valencia), something which we couldn't do with the previous engine. We had failures in Jerez, but the improvements were clear.

"Now, with the improved power, we have moved forward, but I think we are still behind Honda, Renault and maybe Ferrari, who seem to be in the best form for the start of the season.

"Thanks to the last test in Jerez everybody is more relaxed after seeing the performance of the engine, which is a big step forward. The atmosphere has clearly changed and there's a lot more joy and confidence than in previous weeks."