Monteiro targets regular point finishes

"I'm excited," admitted Monteiro. "I've seen all the numbers in the wind-tunnel, I've been following it quite closely - I must say I've been very involved in the development of this car.

"That's the good thing about doing a second year - I've been very involved all winter and therefore even inside the car things are a lot better for me. So we are very excited and very hopeful."

Monteiro was the rookie of the year last season after scoring seven points and finishing on the podium at the six-car United States Grand Prix behind Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello in the Ferraris.

The Portuguese reckons his 2005 season will be hard to top, but he is confident he will be able to fight regularly for point finishes.

"To score seven points, go on the podium, receive all those awards... it will be difficult unless I win a race," said Monteiro. "I had an amazing first season, fair enough, but now we're here to work and to improve and to finish in the points more regularly.

"It won't happen right away and it won't be an easy task - because we know what we've gained but we don't know what the others have done and they're also improving. It won't be easy, especially initially.

"But we have three or four big upgrades coming during the season, just things the team didn't physically have time to get ready for testing. There's a lot of ideas for the new car. After two or three races we're going to have the first big step.

"Initially I want to be able to close the gap to the others, which was big last year, and then be regularly close to the points. And again, I want to be ready for any opportunity that comes up."

Monteiro, who famously celebrated his podium finish at the controversial Indianapolis race while the Ferrari drivers left the rostrum, said he had not regrets despite the initial booing from the fans.

"It was weird. Especially because Michael and Rubens were very happy [before going up onto the rostrum] and then they suddenly had these glum faces," he said. "It was an opportunity for me that I didn't want to miss. My team was there celebrating, some of them crying, so I wasn't going to be making a bad face.

"And when I started spraying the champagne the people stopped booing and started cheering. So I think people got pissed off because not only was the show destroyed for them, but then they had two people on the podium with long faces.

"So it wasn't fair for the public, and I'm glad once I started spraying the champagne and celebrating like a normal podium, they were happy again."