The three Oxfordshire Formula 1 teams are confident they are ready as they can be for the launch of the 2001 season in Melbourne on Sunday.

The first race of the year gives the teams the chance to see whether or not the work they have done during winter testing has paid off.

The Australian race is famous for its high rate of attrition as the teams may not have had time to de-bug their new cars and, with the weather being as hot as it usually is in Melbourne, the heat only adds to reliability issues.

As the circuit uses city streets and is only used for racing once a year, the track is very dirty at the beginning of the race weekend. The dust and dirt soon clears though to reveal a smooth, although slightly bumpy track, that is kind to tyres. The circuit consists of mostly medium-speed turns and is pretty hard on the brakes.

BMW motorsport director Gerhard Berger said although the Grove-based team had been testing alongside McLaren in Barcelona, it was difficult to work out how they compared.

He said: "Although we were testing together with McLaren Mercedes in Barcelona, it's still very difficult to know exactly where we are standing because we don't know under which conditions the other cars were running, in terms of tyre, of fuel and set-up configuration.

The Mild Seven Benetton Renault Sport team, from Enstone, have been hard at work testing during the winter and finished off preparations last week at Silverstone.

Jenson Button concentrated on endurance work, running very high fuel loads and completing 48 laps. Giancarlo Fisichella took over and shook down the three chassis before they were transported to Australia.

Leafield-based Orange Arrows team driver Jos Verstappen is looking forward to his return to Melbourne as, before retiring from last year's race, he was on the pace and hoping for points

He said: "I had a good year with Orange Arrows in 2000 and was able to race against the big teams many times. We made progress throughout the season and I got some good results, especially in Italy and Canada so let's hope I can do it again this year."

Newly-signed Enrique Bernoldi can't wait to hit the track as a fully-fledged Formula 1 driver. He said: "This is a brand new experience for me in many ways. Although I am now quite at home in a Formula 1 car, I have some new circuits to learn.

"I've never even been to Australia, let alone raced at Albert Park. I have been studying the data we have on the circuit so I have an idea of the track, but the free practice sessions on Friday will be very important for me.

Team principal Tom Walkinshaw said: "We've had a heavy testing schedule over the winter break and the team has been working very hard to get the best out of the new car. We had a positive year in 2000 so we hope to continue our upward trend in 2001.

"Our pace was good in Melbourne last year so we are hoping for a good race."