Brazilian Felipe Massa expects equal treatment with new Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen this season and is confident he can improve on last season's third place championship finish.

Massa told a news conference at the Formula One team's winter retreat in the Dolomites on Wednesday that he feels he has a new status since the retirement of seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher.

"A lot has changed since last year. I never had a competitive car and I was learning. It was normal that the team were more interested in Michael, absolutely normal," he said.

"I am sure I have an important role in the squad. We are two young drivers and the team will be very clear with both of us -- I am sure there will be equal treatment for both drivers.

"It is true that Kimi is very important for the team and there are high expectations because he has shown himself to be very fast and one of the best in F1, although he has not yet won a title," he added.

Raikkonen, twice a championship runner-up, joins from McLaren as Schumacher's replacement.

"I see myself as being in the right place in the right time and in a wonderful squad and I'm being treated the way I want to be treated," said Massa.

Massa won last season's Brazilian and Turkish Grands Prix but while he is confident of winning more he said he was not dreaming about the title.

"I'm not the sort of person who goes crazy for things in the head. I take it day by day and I'm not thinking about that, just about work and being competitive. I certainly see a big possibility for achieving things, though," he said.

"Even though I was motivated and happy last year, this time I have more experience, things have changed and I am more relaxed in facing up to new things," added Massa.

The 25-year-old former Sauber driver said Formula One would feel the absence of Schumacher.

"It is a loss for the sport because F1 is losing a great who has broken all those records. It will be strange at the start of the season without him. But that is life, things go on," he said.

Massa felt that Spaniard Fernando Alonso, who has moved from Renault to McLaren, would be the man to beat among Ferrari's opponnents.

He said that the new regulations, which see all teams using the same Bridgestone tyres, would produce a tightly contested championship.

"It will be very competitive. There are a lot of good drivers and teams. It will be very equally balanced and not easy. We will have to work really hard right from the outset," he said.