Ferrari's Felipe Massa has said that he believes he can not only be competitive in the 2012 season, but also take the fight within the Italian team to Fernando Alonso, despite having been well beaten by the Spaniard for the last two years.
Massa has struggled to challenge Alonso within the team since the two-time champion joined the Ferrari team at the start of the 2010 season.
While Alonso fought for the championship in 2010 and scored ten podium finishes in 2011 despite working with an uncompetitive car, Massa has not been in the mix for the championship in either season.
And pressure is now growing on the Brazilian ahead of the 2012 season, amidst reports that the team are weighing up alternative drivers for 2013.
But Massa has insisted that while he realises that the pressure is on him for this year, he is sure he can improve his fortunes in 2012.
"Of course it is going to be an extremely important year," he told reporters on Wednesday at Ferrari's pre-season Wroom event.
"This is a season during which we want to do more, and as far as I am concerned it is going to be extremely important because surely I want to do more than what I did last year and in 2010."
He added: "I want a season which hopefully will not see me with the odds against me, as happened...last season when very often I started the race and at the end I had much less points than I deserved.
"I have plenty of motivation, plenty of drive. I am positive about myself and this is what I want.
"I want to be as competitive as possible, to win as man races as possible and fight for the championship as I have done many times in the past."
And asked if he felt that he could challenge Alonso within the team next season, he added: "Yes, absolutely yes. I am convinced that I can do it.
"On the race tracks where there was not a marked degradation of tyres, the difference was shown mostly with my driving style.
"So returning to having a car, as the one we had for many years, having a car that is competitive, this difference does not exist.
"I am sure that I can fight against Fernando not just to have the same time, but to make a better time than him - so to be even faster than him."
Reports have linked the likes of Robert Kubica and Nico Rosberg with the second seat at Ferrari for 2013 should Massa underperform again.
But Massa insisted that he was not approaching the season thinking about what he needed to do in order to get a new contract from the team.
"I am thinking about the championship, so of course you must have a competitive car from the start," he rambled.
"Talking about myself, the start of the season, the first part of the championship is surely going to be more important for my future as opposed to the second part. But that is not anything new."
Meanwhile, team mate Alonso singled out Kubica as being the driver that he most feared, despite the Pole having missed the 2011 season through injury.
"For me the best driver is Robert Kubica - and I want to wish him the best," he said, reacting to Wednesday's news that Kubica had broken his right leg in a fall at his home in Italy.
"I spoke to him yesterday and I am sure when he is going to return he is going to be the best driver of the group."
Tellingly, when asked for his thoughts on Kubica's potential move to Ferrari, Alonso surreptitiously muttered: "I am very happy with Felipe..."
Which may be true for the Spaniard, but seems unlikely to be the case for Ferrari itself.
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