Schumacher confident of fighting Renault

Renault roared to their first 1-2 finish since the 1982 French Grand Prix in Malaysia, while Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher could manage no better than fifth and sixth after being hampered by engine change penalties.

Despite the failure to fight at the front, Schumacher believes that the fact Sepang has usually been one of Ferrari's weakest circuits actually bodes well.

"We're not as fast as Renault but that was clear to us before," he said. "I don't think that's a bad sign because the difference between us is not so bad.

"I will have to check the times, but I would say it is 0.5sec. Considering this is the worst track for us in terms of characteristics it's really okay. That's why I'm not so unhappy."

Schumacher's general optimism is matched by Ferrari sporting director Jean Todt - especially with developments due to come from tyre supplier Bridgestone in the near future.

"I would say that if we started from the 20th lap it was quite good," said Todt. "However, we had to start the race at the first lap and needless to say that starting from where we started, we can only be pleased with the final result.

"Even if it's not pleasing, generally speaking, it's the best result we could expect to achieve.

"It has been a tough weekend because we had to identify a potential risk of reliability on Michael's engine, and a clear problem that Felipe had at the first race, which meant that we decided to change his engine before this race. We changed it again this morning, always trying to take as little risk as possible.

"Otherwise the package was quite good, even though I feel we need to be a bit more competitive. Bridgestone have definitely made some progress with the tyres and it's quite interesting to have some other good teams with Bridgestone, because we can see some developments which seem promising for the future."

Schumacher believes that Ferrari's current pace put them somewhere between their victory-challenging form in Bahrain and what they showed in Malaysia.

"It depends on the different characteristics of the tracks," he added. "This is one that didn't suit us.

"I think we can make progress (for Australia). It is a circuit with a different character and suits our car. And I have every hope we can make real progress in testing."