Michael Schumacher launched the Ferrari in which he will bid for a seventh drivers' crown this season today, insisting he was ready for a new Formula One battle.
The German took the scarlet wraps off the F2004 at the team's Maranello factory in Italy and will undergo an intensive period of testing in the new car next month.
"I'm ready for the new challenge and I'm ready for the new year," said Schumacher, who won a record sixth title, and fourth in a row with Ferrari, last year.
The 35-year-old will be at Ferrari's private tracks at Mugello and Fiorano as well as at Imola, expecting the car to be ready for the new season which starts in Australia on March 7th.
Team-mate Rubens Barrichello is determined to start the season in Melbourne as he ended last year when his victory in Japan helped Schumacher to his latest title.
"I want to start off the way I ended by winning for myself and winning for Ferrari," said the Brazilian, who recently resigned to stay with the team until the end of 2006.
Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said: "When the drivers don't say much it's a good sign as when they talk too much, they invent things. How they drive is what matters.
Manchester-born technical director Ross Brawn said, as expected, that the F2004 was the best ever car to roll off the production line at Maranello.
But Brawn admits they may have to start the campaign in last year's model.
The team, who have started the last two seasons in an old car, expect the new model will be on the grid in Melbourne unless they hit major problems in testing.
"If we have a catastrophe then we would have to reconsider but it would be a hell of a task to get the old car ready with the new regulations," admitted Brawn.
The problem for Ferrari is that new regulations mean engines now have to last a race weekend - double the 400km distance of previous years - which makes it difficult fitting the new engine into last year's car.
Schumacher hopes to begin testing the F2004 at the end of this week and will run exclusively at Ferrari's private tracks at Mugello and Fiorano as well as at Imola, home of the San Marino Grand Prix, before the car heads to Australia.
Ferrari's rival McLaren had their new car running before Christmas while Williams launched their radical FW26 in the first week of January and have already racked up thousands of miles in testing.