Ferrari has conceded that it needs to revise its approach to the World Championship battle in the wake of Fernando Alonso’s disastrous Japanese Grand Prix.
Alonso’s lead in the title race has been cut to just four points after he crashed out at the first corner at Suzuka and closest rival Sebastian Vettel delivered a crushing victory. With Ferrari well aware that it does not have the fastest car, the pressure is on the outfit to make much-needed improvements to its car so Alonso does not lose out to his Red Bull rival.
Team principal Stefano Domenicali knows that Suzuka may well prove to be a significant moment in the title battle, but has urged his outfit to remain calm.
"Now, with the situation of not scoring any points [in Japan], it is different and, if any of the others have any problems, we need to make sure we score more points," he said. "But for sure we need to think differently now, because that race advantage is not there. But it [the title fight] is still in our control."
Domenicali has flown back to Ferrari’s Maranello factory for a post-race debrief, and will spend a few days there before traveling to the next race in Korea. Ferrari’s development progress has been put under the spotlight with rivals Red Bull and McLaren having edged clear in recent races, but Domenicali has defended the work of his team.
"We need to stay very rational here because McLaren was on an unbelievable pace in Singapore, and everybody said they were flying," he said. "We saw Red Bull this weekend was impressive, so we need to see what we can do to match their development – or see if this track was better for them. But for sure we need to know that the others are pushing and we need to keep the positive pressure on our engineers to make sure we deliver the development.
"When I hear that we have not developed the car for many grands prix, it is not true. The truth is that the level of development is very high, but we need to start higher because when you start there [in the middle of the grid] anything can happen."
Info: Racer.com, Image: Ferrari
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