MELBOURNE, March 31 - Ferrari are planning big improvements for their car in time for the first European race of the Formula One season at their home Imola circuit.

"There is quite a good development programme being put together and Imola will be the first stage," technical director Ross Brawn told reporters at the Australian Grand Prix on Friday.

"I think it will be quite a good step forward for us, both aerodynamically and mechanically."

Ferrari have rebounded from a miserable 2005 season with a more competitive 248F1 car. Seven-times champion Michael Schumacher is equal second in the standings, seven points adrift of Renault's world champion Fernando Alonso after two races.

Brawn said Ferrari would be trying out new suspension systems before the April 23 San Marino Grand Prix and further developments were in the pipeline.

"There are some nice improvements coming for Imola on the aero side and I know there are some further improvements coming for the races after that," the Autosport Web site quoted the Briton as saying.

"There are some changes to the engine coming as well, but we need to stabilise the situation with the engine before we think we can introduce the changes."

Ferrari, the most successful team in Formula One history, have suffered repeated failures with their new V8 engine. Both Schumacher and Brazilian Felipe Massa incurred 10-place penalties on the starting grid in Malaysia.

Brawn said Ferrari had identified the problem as a piston issue and would lower the revs for Saturday qualifying in particular.

"It is a problem with one piston in the engine and all the others are perfectly okay," he said. "But you only need one to fail of course.

"It is a difficult problem to resolve because when you take the engine apart, seven pistons are perfect and one of them looks a bit sad. But we have some modifications to try before Imola," added Brawn.