2010 world championship runner-up Fernando Alonso has admitted that he doesn't know how his team compares to the opposition as yet, while admitting that the new Pirelli rubber means lots of pit-stops.

"We will only really know where we stand compared to the others when we are in Melbourne," he told reporters during a promotional event in Madrid. "At the moment, I am happy because we proved to have a reliable car. If all goes to plan, we will be in the group of teams capable of fighting for the title, along with Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes and also Renault, who have already made a step forward towards the end of last season. Even Toro Rosso has made significant progress."

Asked about the new tyres, which during the course of the three tests have shown an astonishing rate of degradation, said by the Italian company to be deliberate, the Spaniard said: "From what we have seen so far, degradation is very significant, which means we will have races with lots of pit stops.

"I'm not keen on that," he admitted, "because I think this increased uncertainty does not favour the strongest teams: it's as if in football, it was decided to have a penalty per team each half hour in which case Barcelona and Real Madrid would not be jumping for joy. However, the situation is the same for everyone: it will be important to be fastest because I don't think we can make one stop less than our main rivals."