Schumacher Happy with F2005 Progress

After reliability problems blighted the debut of the team's new car in Bahrain, Schumacher believes that the recent running at Barcelona, Fiorano and Mugello mean the outfit no longer have any worries about making it to the end of the race.

Looking back at how much work the team have put in since Bahrain, Schumacher told his own website: "I must say we made some really good progress.

"The F2005 was very good right from the start, but now we understand the car much better and know how to deal with any problems that may arise. We perfected it and also improved the aerodynamics.

"I think our winning potential is very high with this car, and we're not worried anymore about the problems regarding reliability that came up in Bahrain.

"Reliability is one of our strongest areas of expertise and the technical failure in Bahrain was my first since 2001, so that's not really something we're overly concerned about, I think we've solved that problem."

The pace shown by Schumacher in Bahrain, where he qualified on the front row and challenged eventual winner Fernando Alonso in the early stages, has shown that the new F2005 has the basic speed necessary to fight right at the front.

And with the cooler temperatures of Europe likely to favour Ferrari's Bridgestone tyres, Schumacher has even more reason to believe that the Maranello outfit can head to Imola with a degree of confidence.

"In general, I think that we're going to be doing quite well at Imola because we have a good track record there. After all, our main goal is very clear: we want to start winning again."