Schumacher sure he will fight for title

Speaking just before he departed for the Middle East on Monday, Schumacher admitted that poor weather that marred last week's test at Mugello had hampered his team's pre-season build-up, but he was nevertheless optimistic about an eventual return to the top.

"I'm convinced that our 248 F1 has the potential to take part in the fight for the championship title," he said. "Even though we were not able to put in as many kilometres as we would have liked to due to the weather, I'm still confident about the start of the season.

"Even if we can't win the first few races, we do have a very clear idea of how the car will improve over the course of the year. This is very valuable. So it would be ideal to at least score some points in the first race. In any way, we're travelling to the races at Bahrain and Malaysia fully motivated."

Schumacher believes that reigning champions Renault are heading into the season as favourites for victory, but believes that the overall fight at the front is too close to call.

"Renault seem to be the strongest right now, followed by three teams: Honda, Mercedes (McLaren) and Ferrari," he explained. "I think it's going to be a very close match this season. I think the teams are not far apart, so we will have to get ready for a tough fight over the championship title.

"We welcome this, situations like this boost our morale even more, and it's great for the sport and our fans. I think everyone can look forward to this year's World Championship. So it's a good thing that we're finally getting started."

Despite the poor weather of last week, however, Schumacher believes Ferrari may have an edge over some of their rivals this weekend thanks to a major test they conducted at Sakhir last month.

"Those were our first tests in warmer weather in quite a while and they took place on the Grand-Prix circuit. That cannot be a disadvantage.

"On the contrary: it should give us a certain advantage regarding our choice of tyres and set-up."