MELBOURNE - Last year's world champion Fernando Alonso, firmly in the spotlight now Michael Schumacher has retired, believes his new team McLaren has the right mindset to dominate Formula One.
Alonso switched teams to McLaren after two seasons with world constructors champions Renault and is expected to restore the once-mighty McLaren to the top of F1 after nine years without a world title.
The Spaniard gets his chance to set the standard for McLaren in Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix around the Albert Park street-circuit on the southern fringes of Melbourne's CBD.
There is a belief in F1 circles that if McLaren can produce a fast, reliable car for Alonso then they will win this year's world drivers' and constructors' titles ahead of Renault and Ferrari.
Ferrari are nominal favourites heading into the Melbourne race based on winter testing with Brazilian Felipe Massa producing the fastest times along with new teammate Kimi Raikkonen.
That was also the case this time last year with Ferrari quickest in testing, but when it came to the races, Renault got the jump, winning the season's opening three races, Alonso claiming two of them, before seven-times world champion Schumacher won Ferrari's first race at San Marino.
Now Alonso, the winner of 15 of his 87 GPs, is behind the McLaren wheel and from what he has seen the well-funded British team are on target to make a big noise in this season's F1.
"The McLaren team has a huge potential. They are very professional people, they are good in their job and everything is well organised and everyone is pretty focused," Alonso, 25, said.
"We have plenty of sponsors this year to help us, and all this atmosphere to try and win everything. And with all the facilities, I think we should be competitive enough to win many championships.
"Now it's up to us to take all this potential into race victories."
As if to bear that out, Alonso was quickest in opening practice Friday ahead of Massa's Ferrari with the Renaults of Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen over two seconds slower.
Massa, 25, goes into Sunday's race the form driver having won the last 2006 race in his native Brazil ahead of Alonso, he has played downs claims he should be this weekend's race favourite based on his sizzling off-season testing times.
The Brazilian finished four of the final six days of preparations in Bahrain at the top of the timesheets and broke the track's lap record on the last day of testing.
"I don't feel the favourite and I will never feel being the favourite, because you need to do the job day by day," Massa said.
"Many things can change very quickly and the most important thing is to keep working hard, keep your feet on the ground, and try to do the job.
"There's 17 races still to go, starting this weekend, and doing my job is the most important thing for me."
Alonso may be gone, but Renault are still the reigning world champion team and have a highly-prized technical outfit backing their drivers, led by head engineer Pat Symonds.
Renault edged out Ferrari by five points for last year's championship and their reliability with points in all but one race in last year's championship make them a formidable opponent.
But it remains to be seen whether 34-year-old Fisichella, a winner of just three of his 177 GPs, and 25-year-old rookie Kovalainen can fill the void created by Alonso's departure.
"It's one of my favourite circuits, and I have very good memories after my win here in 2005," Fisichella said.
"The R27 (car) is an evolution of the R26 and the R25, both of which were always quick in Melbourne.
"We have a good baseline, and lots of potential in the car. We have worked hard this winter to be able to fight with the front-runners at the start of the year."
03/16/2007 03:56 GMT