Giancarlo Fisichella's three Grand Prix wins have all occurred at the start of the season, the Italian having won in Brazil in 2003 (Rd 3), Australian in 2005 (Rd 1) and Sepang last year, the second race of the season.

However, just over a week before the engines burst into life in Melbourne, the Renault team leader is dismissing his team's hopes of opening the season with a win.

"We are struggling a little bit at the moment," he told Australia's Herald Sun. "We need to find a little bit of pace. Ferrari and McLaren are a step forward at the moment. McLaren and Ferrari are stronger than us. It's at least half a second a lap. It's a lot."

Having won the Australian Grand Prix for the last two years, the French team will be hoping to make it a hat-trick, and although Renault has rarely topped the timesheets during pre-season testing, it has shown remarkable reliability.

"We are struggling to drive the car," Fisichella admitted. "The grip overall is not great. Probably it is downforce."

With all the teams running on Bridgestone rubber this year, it would be easy to point the finger, but the Italian is willing to do so.

"Maybe it's one of the reasons," he said. "But a team like McLaren has not got that problem, so if they can make them work..."

On the positive side, he added: "We have some new bits coming for the first race. The main thing now is to find a little bit more (speed).

"The aim is to win," he continued, "but it depends on the competitiveness of the car. If we are able to have the speed of the last couple of years it is possible, but if not then it is not. Reliability is quite good, but we need a bit more pace."

Nonetheless, the veteran of 177 Grands Prix is confident that race fans are in for a thrilling season: "All of us with the same tyres, it is going to be quite tight, quite tough and quite close," he said.