Schu: Williams and McLaren are threats

But Schumacher, who celebrated his 33rd birthday on holiday in Norway yesterday (Thursday), says he is not sure which driver will pose his biggest threat this year.

"I think both these teams will make our life difficult," said Schumacher. "I can't say yet which driver will be my main rival in the long run. It's always difficult to make predictions. That was the case last year, when everyone reckoned it would be Mika [Hakkinen], but it turned out to be David [Coulthard]. We will see.

"I expect BMW-Williams to be even stronger than in 2001. But we cannot rule out McLaren-Mercedes, even if the fact they have switched to Michelin tyres might mean they will need some time to adapt."

For his part, Schumacher believes that Ferrari will be stronger than last season when he romped to his second successive world title.

"Overall, I can say that things are going better than in previous years," he said. "I think we are on schedule to meet all our deadlines. In the past we have started with everything new. But this time round, given that the technical regulations have not changed significantly, we have been able to work from a very good base point.

"At a push, the only unknown could be the new transmission. But we have all of January and February to develop it and even in this area, we can base our work on what we did at the end of last year. I think everything is progressing well," he added.