Albers calls for push.

Spyker F1's Christijan Albers has said that while it is not going to be an easy start to the season for the Silverstone-based outfit in Australia, they must 'push' to do the best they possibly can.

Albers, who is on the verge of embarking on his third full season in the top flight, will have extra responsibility this year as he is effectively the team's outright number one driver, now that he will be partnered by rookie, Adrian Sutil.

Speaking in the countdown to the first round in the 2007 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, he added though that while they were quite late launching the new F8-VII and have not done loads of testing, they have capitalised on every single mile.

"I've been pleased with the testing so far this year. We might not have done a lot of testing relative to other teams, but we have progressed perhaps more than any other team has done in the same space of time," he noted.

"The car is reliable and the balance is getting better all the time; now we understand the performance of the tyres more, we can really concentrate on getting a good set-up.

"It's not going to be an easy start to the year - we will have to push to get to the other teams, but that's what we're in Formula 1 to do. We've got to push ourselves to do the best we can."

Spyker F1 chief technical officer, Mike Gascoyne meanwhile has also been pleased with the progress they have made over the winter. Like Albers though he isn't expecting miracles in Oz. He does believe however that they will be a lot more competitive in Malaysia, for round two, thanks to a 'significant aero update'.

"After a long winter of testing and development, it's always exciting to be get out again at the first Grand Prix of the season. From our point of view, testing went very well, the car is reliable and did not demonstrate any mechanical problems, the cooling is well under control and we really can be optimistic about the coming year," he added.

"Performance-wise, we've always said we were going to be at the back of the grid, but we feel we'll be pretty close to the group in front of us now.

"For Malaysia too we're expecting a significant aero update, so for Australia the goal is to get both cars to the finish and to be as close to the pack in front as possible. With the new developments, hopefully by Malaysia we'll be racing them."