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.
