Pedro de la Rosa said he feels refreshed after an 'easy' winter break from the frenetic activity of a Formula 1 campaign, but he insists the work at McLaren-Mercedes has not stopped even for a minute.

The Spaniard – heading into his sixth year as a test and reserve driver for the Woking-based squad – was given the honour of being the first person to get behind the wheel of the British outfit's new MP4-23 challenger on-track in Jerez last week. It was, he admitted, good to get back in the saddle again.

“That was a pretty special feature,” he told Crash.net Radio, “especially because I've been in the team since 2003 and this was the eighth McLaren-Mercedes car I have driven. It's quite something, when you think that I was the first one and that the team trusted me so much to give me that chance.

“For a driver the winter is a period when you have time for a break, especially over Christmas, but the team back in Woking, Stuttgart and Brixworth have been flat-out. We [drivers] have an easy life during the winter; we can take a break whilst the engineers, mechanics and a lot of the people in the factory don't have that luxury.”

Now re-invigorated and turning his thoughts towards the forthcoming grand prix season, de la Rosa predicts another tough battle for McLaren with arch-rivals Ferrari, but he refused to rule out other teams enjoying their day in the sun along the way, a distinct rarity in 2007.

“It's early days really,” the 36-year-old insisted. “We're so far away from where we want to be and have so much work in front of us. As a test-driver and someone who has already driven seven McLaren-Mercedes', I know there's a lot still to come. I prefer to be cautious and do the best job possible; we are keeping our feet on the ground.

“I'm sure it's not going to be a head-to-head between two teams; it's going to be a more open championship, and the competition from many teams will be fierce. We just have to be aware of that and not be over-confident.

“We have do work, keep our heads down and not change. I think the key is to just be ourselves; we are a very strong group, the engineering side of McLaren is very strong and we just have to stay together. What we have achieved already is very, very good; we just need one step more.”

To read the interview in full, click here