Williams believes bhp and heat are keys to Brazil

In Malaysia, Ralf Schumacher qualified third behind the Ferraris of his brother Michael and Rubens Barrichello, but struggled to match that performance in a topsy-turvy, dry-wet race. The German finished fifth, with team mate Juan Pablo Montoya retiring after an accident during the start of a downpour on the third lap.

Many F1 insiders believe the horsepower of the BMW V10 is now a match for the benchmarks from Mercedes and Ferrari, and having tested in Barcelona since the Malaysian Grand Prix, Schumacher believes the team's Michelins will come into their own if conditions at the newly-resurfaced track are hot.

'The Interlagos track should be a really good one for us, a bit like Malaysia," he said. "Usually in Brazil it's very warm, which helps our tyres and doesn't affect our engine, which is very good anyway. I see problems only if it should rain, because on a wet track or when it's drying out, we still have some gaps.

"I hope that the track surface has been really improved, because in the past years I experienced a real pounding - so much so that after a few laps I already had a headache."

Colombian Montoya, for whom the race is the nearest thing to a home GP, added: "The Brazilian GP should be a positive race weekend, as Interlagos is a good track for us. But theoretically Malaysia wasn't supposed to be a good track for us and we were pretty quick so, you can never tell.

"I've never been there but I have fond memories of Brazil because I've raced in Rio de Janeiro with the Champ Cars and I won there. It should be pretty exciting, as this is the closest race to my Country. I expect to be lots of Colombian fans there and this will be a really great sensation."

BMW motorsport director Gerhard Berger is also confident that the Grove-based team can be a factor in Brazil, but says that the set-up and aero package of the cars will be fundamentally different to the configurations run in Australia and Malaysia.

"Both the Melbourne and Sepang circuits required a higher level of downforce, which was quite difficult to achieve due to this year's rule changes," he said. "Interlagos is going to be the first track of the 2001 calendar where less downforce is required.

"In Sao Paulo, again we will have to deal with high temperatures, but no different to those we have already experienced. The Malaysian heat turned out to be very positive for Michelin, and also on the engine side we could get further confidence in our reliability.

"In Interlagos the engine power is very important on the circuit's two long straights, one of which is uphill. All in all, we are looking confidently at the Brazilian Grand Prix where we hope to collect some more points."

Like Melbourne, it is a full year since F1 raced at Interlagos, meaning that lap times are set to tumble in the tyre war between Bridgestone and Michelin. Michael Schumacher holds the lap record of 1m14.755s, but predictions are putting pole position in the 1m11s bracket.