Fernnado Alonso was generally considered to be the best driver in 2012, but the Spaniard has warned that he will be even better this year.
Despite not having the fastest car on the grid last year, the Ferrari driver finished a mere three points behind eventual winner Sebastian Vettel in the Drivers' Championship.
Alonso and Ferrari's spirits are high ahead of the start of the 2013 season in Melbourne though, as they believe they have learned from the mistakes they made a season ago.
And judging by the way they performed during the final pre-season test at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya, the double World Champion has every reason to be confident.
"Last year was the best year of my career and I was very happy with the performance, but I think this year will be better," said Alonso, speaking at a Santander event in Barcelona.
"We have a better starting point and I have learned from some of the mistakes from last year.
"You can always improve as a driver in terms of tyre management and in terms of preparation and approach for a grand prix.
"The trust, confidence and motivation are better than any other year and pit-stop wise, with starts, all these things, we are constantly learning.
"I have prepared better. I am better than last year."
Ferrari lagged well behind rivals Red Bull and McLaren during qualifying at the start of the 2012 season and they took a while to get going, but Alonso is hopeful they are much better prepared this time around.
He added: "Last year I was obviously motivated and wanted to win, but I arrived in Australia and Malaysia without very much confidence of what we could do and without much confidence in the car.
"I did not have too much trust in what we were doing because, as I have said many times, we were a little bit lost.
"It was not in my mind to fight for the World Championship last year because we were so far behind.
"We were 1.6 seconds off in Australia, so it was an amazing comeback from the team.
"Although I am more motivated than last year, it is true I need a better car than last year because we were too far off the leaders."
