Kimi Raikkonen is not convinced by suggestions that Ferrari has the fastest package going into this weekend's Melbourne season opener.
The reigning world champion reckons Ferrari and McLaren emerged from winter testing neck and neck, and was unwilling to predict which team would hold the advantage this weekend.
"I think it's very difficult to say from testing," Raikkonen told ITV Sport's Ted Kravitz.
"We'll see over the weekend how it goes but I think it will be quite close between the two top teams and hopefully we'll come out on top."
He said his priority was to avoid last year's early season dip in form, which left him with a 26-point deficit to recover in the second half of 2007.
"We will try to start a bit stronger than last year and try to finish it in a similar way," Raikkonen told Ted.
"But it's too early to say how good we will be or how strong we will be.
"We will see over this weekend and the next weekend how things are going."
The Finn added that starting the year as the defending champion did not make much difference to his approach.
"It doesn't really changing anything," he said.
"I think people are looking at it differently but hopefully we can do a similar thing - be strong all year and stay up there [in contention]."