Schumacher satisfied with recent test

Ferrari joined the other teams for testing at Valencia last week and Michael Schumacher said he was satisfied with the winter work so far. Schumacher spent three days at the Spanish track driving the new 248 F1 and his best time was third quickest on the first and second days of Ferrari's three day programme.

Michael Schumacher.

Photo by xpb.cc.

"We wrapped up three days of testing and have been able to get plenty of work done," the German told his website. "As we all know, it rained on the first day -- which was quite good for us, because we wanted to test our tyres for the wet and were therefore able to finish our complete programme."

The conditions improved for the next two days but Schumacher would not have worried if the weather had remained poor. "It wouldn't have mattered… because we will be testing extensively at Bahrain, so we should manage to collect enough information in good weather until the season gets underway," he added.

There is a lot of speculation about how Ferrari will perform this season after the difficulties of 2005 but it's always hard to judge competitiveness from winter test times. As far as Schumacher is concerned, it's so far so good for the Scuderia.

"All in all, I'm absolutely satisfied with where we're at," he commented. "There is still no reason to be less than optimistic. Of course, we encountered a few small problems during our tests -- but finding them is what testing is all about. But in general things are looking good."

Different teams having been running different chassis and engine configurations through the winter which makes the test times less than conclusive, but the former champion thinks Ferrari is near the front. "Renault seem to be the strongest team at this time, but Honda and ourselves are not far behind," he said. "That's my view right now."

MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi, who was testing for Ferrari, attracted the most attention at Valencia and Schumacher was complimentary about the Italian. "He definitely has enough talent, and the good impression he made on me prior to this test has now been intensified as a result."

Ferrari will be back on the test track at Fiorano this week.