Fisichella hoping for Safety Car fortune

The Italian, who has not scored in his last 13 starts - the longest pointless spell of his F1 career - believes that despite the team racing their seamless shift gearbox for the first time, it will not be enough to move the team off the back two rows of the grid.

"Obviously, if it's a normal race it's going to be impossible to score points," he told autosport.com. "But if we have a good strategy and are a bit lucky, then we can do well. You never know - it's important to get to the end of the race and score the best result we can.

"I'm confident about the seamless shift - we have made another development in terms of reliability - but although it's two or three tenths better it's not enough."

The Italian also believes that despite running on a street circuit, there is little potential for the driver to make up for the pace of his car.

"It's a street circuit, but it's not really a difficult one," he said. "It's quite wide - like Australia really and it's difficult to learn, but I don't think that it's a possibility to be much quicker than other people.

"There is nothing extra special for the driver to do - it is like a normal circuit."