Schumacher: Williams, Renault Stronger than McLaren

Six-time World Champion Michael Schumacher believes Williams and Renault will be his Ferrari team's main rivals this year.

The German, however, refused to rule McLaren out despite their unimpressive testing pace so far.

"I see Williams and Renault are really strong, probably more than McLaren," Schumacher said. "But it's impossible to judge from the outside, as no one knows what they are really doing at McLaren. They aren't setting fast laptimes, that's true, but maybe they aren't looking for it.

"So it's pointless to talk about these things now, it's premature, we'll have to wait. Williams and us are certainly going better than others, but everything depends on the current tests and on the moment those laptimes are set."

Schumacher, whose Ferrari team aim to clinch their sixth consecutive constructors' title as he searches his fifth straight drivers' crown, said he expected the new F2004 to race at the season opening Australian Grand Prix.

"There is really no reason for not taking it to Melbourne, even within a short time we have made some positive experiments; we are optimistic, totally calm and confident about its reliability already on the first race of the Championship," Schumacher told Gazzetta dello Sport.

"At this time last year the work we were doing was completely different: we had just received the new car, but there were problems so we immediately turn our attention on the old car. With the F2002 we didn't need to look for reliability, as we knew we could be safe with it."

The German claimed he has no doubts about the potential of the new Ferrari, especially after his teammate Rubens Barrichello shattered the Mugello circuit record last week by over two seconds.

"I'm happy that the new car allows us to set such significant laptimes already, as it proves that we have great potential," said Schumacher. "It is important to have such improvements: the lowering of over two seconds on the lap set by Rubens is a remarkable achievement that puts us in a strong position compared to the rest."