Domenicali urges Ferrari to keep focused

Ferrari remain in a cautious mood after topping the times at the recent Valencia test session in Spain. Team boss Stefano Domenicali has been speaking about the need to keep their feet on the ground and concentrated on the task at hand. The road to recovery from 2009 seems to have started well but there is no reason to be fully confident that Ferrari have turned around the gap they had from the end of last season to the front of the grid.

Domenicali was off course delighted with the reliability of the Ferrari F10, it was one key area he had singled out to make big improvements in, Ferrari have suffered greatly recently from poor early season reliability and it must be pleasing for Stefano to see the car on track running without any problems so far. However the lap times should not be looked at too closely says Stefano. Ferrari are keen not to jump to any hasty conclusions.

"We can’t forget where we were in terms of performance at the last GP last year. There is still a lot of work to do to close the gap and there are still many problems we have to solve. And then we don’t know the petrol loads the other cars had on board, so it’s impossible to get a clear idea of the relative strengths on the track. Maybe someone also wants to play hide and seek and some still have to present their cars.”

"If there is one thing we’re really satisfied with then it’s the reliability the car has shown. The more than 1,400 kilometres driven are a very good start and we need to ensure that the intense work at the test stand and in terms of simulations over the weeks before the debut on the track, will bear fruit," Domenicali said. "In Valencia we also started to get to know the new Bridgestone tyres’ behaviour also related to the petrol load. But the data is still absolutely relative: this track is not particularly demanding on the tyres and the temperatures weren’t the ones we’ll have for example during the season’s first three races."

Both Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso were happy with the initial feelings for the car, and Stefano is delighted to see two highly motivated drivers ready to work hard to make Ferrari succeed. He also praised them for already giving the team detailed feedback on area's that the team could improve.

"They were both very happy with how things went. Especially regarding the car’s reliability. They are both extremely motivated and have a great desire to drive: it would have been frustrating if we hadn’t started on the right track here. Both, Felipe and Fernando, know that we have to work a lot and they already gave many indications where we have to improve the car. There are no miracles in Formula 1, if you want to be fast you have to work hard for months and months and then you’ll meet your competitors, who have as much capacities and are as motivated as you. We can’t take anything for granted and we shouldn’t delude ourselves by indications, which could be completely misleading."