Alex Zanardi admits that the BMW Italy-Spain is battling one major problem as it continues preparations for the start of the 2008 World Touring Car Championship season.

The Italian took to the track at Valencia as the ROAL Motorsport-run squad looked to make progress after a somewhat difficult test at Estoril last month.

However, the popular ex-F1 ace was left scratching his head as the team failed to close in on its rivals and was left with a busy time ahead before the season starts in Brazil.

“Valencia's test finished yesterday and unfortunately things didn't go as we would have hoped,” he said. “We are quite behind our opponents, maybe more than what we were last year right at the eve of the first race of the WTCC.

“We have a lot of problems in taking tyres to the right temperature, after 100km my tyres still look pretty new! In Brazil it will be quite hot, therefore we should suffer less this problem but we need to work hard to find quickly a solution.”