Ahead of the third race of the season, Giancarlo Fisichella has apparently 'thrown in the towel', with regards challenging for the title this season.

The back-to-back champions are clearly struggling this year, and the battle for third spot in the championship looks set to be the French team's main challenge in the months ahead, as opposed to fighting with McLaren and Ferrari in the hope of retaining its crown(s).

"It's not good at all," said Fisichella, following yesterday's qualifying session in which he finished seventh, five places ahead of his rookie teammate, Heikki Kovalainen.

"At the beginning of the season, the aim was to fight for pole position and win the race," he continued. "Tomorrow we just hope to score some points.

"It can only get better," added the Roman, "it cannot be worse than this. It's going to be a very tough first part of the season.

"I feel a little bit disappointed because at the beginning of the season I was confident to fight for the championship. Unfortunately we cannot do that any more," he continued. "I am disappointed, but I need to do the best with what I have at the moment."