Michael Schumacher

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BARCELONA, Spain -- Michael Schumacher believes former foe Fernando Alonso and former team Ferrari are the favourites going into the Formula One season.

"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 on 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.

"I think none of us have honestly (gotten enough test time) with the rain and bad weather in Jerez. Unfortunately today again we are losing very important track time," Schumacher said. "Although it might rain occasionally during the year, for the development of the car you'd rather have consistent circumstances."

Although upgrades are still expected on his car, Schumacher was confident that even if Mercedes was not atop the podium at Bahrain the team would challenge for the title over the 19-race season.

"That is not really important because you have to win by the end of the season, not the beginning," Schumacher said. "We had our plan on how we wanted to develop the car. The majority of the running this winter was to get reliability, to work together with the team to maximize performance. It's gone very efficiently."