Ferrari cautious despite testing form

With Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa having set some strong times in recent testing, many believe that the reigning champions are already the team to beat.

But technical director Aldo Costa has said he remains cautious about their chances and thinks main rivals McLaren and Renault are still a big concern for them.

"I carry on believing that the championship will be hard fought," said Costa, during testing at Barcelona in Spain.

"For us there's a very strong (Lewis) Hamilton in the McLaren, and an improving (Fernando) Alonso in the Renault, so we expect difficult rivals as usual.

"Therefore we keep our feet on the ground. We will try to get to the first race in the best possible way, especially by taking care of every detail in order to maximise reliability."

Ferrari's belief that they are still not in perfect shape was sealed during their private test at Barcelona on Friday, when test driver Luca Badoer failed to complete a race distance simulation because of a mechanical problem.

Last year, it was reliability issues that cost the team several strong results and allowed rivals McLaren to fight them all the way to the final round of the season.

Speaking about their pre-season preparations, Costa said: "We've clearly tried to anticipate many decisions, and done many tests in order to prepare ourselves best. But, as you could see, we haven't reached perfection yet, so we aren't 100% satisfied."

When asked what he was most afraid of for the new season, Costa said: "Well, the little problem of reliability. We need to take care of all aspects. We are sure we will get to the first race in the best possible condition, not only from a performance point of view, but also in terms of the reliability."