Schumacher sees himself battling for top places

Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher has saluted Mercedes GP team for the “great job” that has been done with the development of the W02. The German says he still has to wait a few races, but he sees it fighting for victories.

After a difficult of the winter tests, Mercedes came back with good upgrades to its car at last week’s final testing in Barcelona. In a qualifying simulation, Schumacher was able to outperform the other teams and surprised some rivals with its speed.

Schumacher seems confident that he will perform better than he did last year and that the W02 will be able to fight for the podium places, but he still prefers not to start launching the fireworks.

"We are going in the right direction. Definitely," Schumacher said in an interview with German agency SID on Tuesday. "We should be in a good position this year. But as to whether we already have a winning car – for this assessment I would like to first wait a few races.

"Anyway, with the car we will be able to fight for the top places, and that is good news. The team did a great job."

His return to F1 wasn’t how many expected it to be, but Schumacher says he is still motivated of making of his return a successful one.

"I never thought that I would come back after three years and everything would be as before," he said. "I am a realist in this respect...it is true that the re-acclimatisation has taken longer than I hoped, but I was always clear that it would be difficult and that there would be no guarantee of success. I am the type who is encouraged by challenges."

Before the start of the championship next week in Australia, Schumacher sees Vettel and Red Bull the ones to beat.