Kovalainen believes Renault are well prepared for the season

"Ferrari are clearly a little bit ahead of everybody else," Kovalainen said.

"We are close enough to fight McLaren and BMW Sauber also look quite competitive. At least these top four teams are closely matched

"And if you make any mistakes or do not maximise your potential, you can be out of the top 10 quite easily."

But, writing in his BBC Sport column, the Finn emphasised that it was difficult to make accurate predictions before the cars had run in anger at Albert Park in Melbourne this weekend.

Heikki Kovalainen column

"Testing can be misleading," the 25-year-old said. "You never really know what the other teams are doing, but I believe it is going to be a close season."

Kovalainen, the replacement for double world champion Fernando Alonso who is now at McLaren, said Renault's pre-season testing had gone well.

"We proved the pace of the car and the reliability has been pretty good all the time, so I am very happy and confident we can be competitive in Melbourne," the Finn said.

But he played down speculation that he could emulate the feat of Italian Giancarlo Baghetti in 1961 and win his debut Grand Prix.

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"To me, it doesn't really matter too much what other people are thinking," he said.

"The expectations are high, but I focus on my own job and try to be the best of all.

"I will try to beat everybody, which is what the team wants me to do, and then at the end we will see.

"My goal is to finish the first race."