Massa cautious on Ferrari form

"We have to improve a lot," Massa told Gazzetta dello Sport. "At the moment I'm not worried about the laptimes because we have many new components to install in the 2006 car.

"The important thing here is to find and maintain reliability, which during these days is the most important aspect.

"Laptimes count, but we still have many kilometres at our disposal. From now on we'll install new components on the car. We'll bring to the 248 the synthesis of the solutions which have brought the best results in testing from November until now. At that point, I'm sure, laptimes will improve."

Ferrari have been setting promising laptimes in winter testing with their new 248 F1 car, although their star driver Michael Schumacher admitted the Italian squad were behind World Champions Renault and closely matched with the Honda team.

Massa believes it's too early to make predictions about Ferrari's form for the season-opener in Bahrain in three weeks time.

"Let's wait, we are preparing suitable material. The basis of the car is good, but needs to be developed. Only at the end of this work I'll be able to be more precise. It's early now," he added.

Schumacher suffered problems with the clutch's electronic control in testing in Bahrain yesterday, meaning his day was cut short. The team flew replacement parts in order to be able to continue testing today.

"The work had to be stopped soon after the start. These things happen, we'll make up the lost time," Schumacher said.