Schumacher willing to keep on testing

Bad weather at Ferrari's test track has hampered running this week and, although the majority of other teams have packed up in preparation for the first race of the season, Schumacher has reiterated he wants to keep working as long as possible.

That is primarily because he believes that Renault may have the edge going into the campaign - and that Honda, McLaren and Ferrari could be playing catch-up.

"We should be well prepared for the start of the season, and we should be one of the leading four teams," he said. "Renault is still making the best impression so far, followed by Honda, Mercedes, and ourselves.

"But we'll have to wait until the season gets underway to find out if that's true. We have not decided yet, how much longer we will be testing here. I'm willing to do anything that's necessary."

Schumacher has added that he is encouraged by the long-distance runs that the team have been able to do at Mugello earlier this week, especially following the reliability dramas that marred Ferrari's running in Bahrain.

"Of course we would have liked to have driven more kilometres at Bahrain, but our solutions for the problems we incurred there have proven to be adequate, as the last couple of days have shown," he added.

"It was definitely helpful to test there, especially regarding the set-up and choice of tyres - it is, after all, the track where the first race will take place. But the tests at Mugello helped us make progress as well."