Schumacher tips Alonso, Ferrari as favourites

“I think Felipe (Massa) and Fernando at the moment look the target,” Schumacher said on Saturday. “They have been doing very good and things look good. I know the team so I know there are good reasons to be happy. I’m not surprised.”

Alonso edged Schumacher for back-to-back titles in 2005 and ’06. Schumacher, who spent 11 seasons at Ferrari, retired after that.

Schumacher said even with his seven F1 titles and record 91 race wins, he was struggling to dissect the field. “I don’t know who played all the cards yet,” the 41-year-old German driver said from the Circuit de Catalunya, where F1 teams were wrapping up testing this weekend. “There are several teams that look very competitive.”

Schumacher did a slight U-turn on his comments Friday when he said his Mercedes team would be unlikely to win at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix on March 14.
“Yesterday I was a little bit pessimistic but I didn’t know the data,” he said.

“It was an initial feeling. But it looks like maybe we were running more fuel than others which is why our track times maybe were not so good. Looking at results and data it looks not too bad - it looks reasonable.”

Rain returned on Saturday after wet conditions compromised six of the eight days at Jerez this month.