Despite having not won a race since the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, the team remains a strong contender for the world title – and victory in Canada last weekend for Fernando Alonso would have put him at the top of the standings.

With Ferrari introducing a major update to its car in Valencia, which is set to include the low blown exhaust concept that is helping Red Bull Racing so much, team principal Stefano Domenicali is aware of the need to ramp up its efforts.

“For sure there is a need for a more aggressive push,” said Domenicali. “It was clear that we had concentrated too much effort on this blown rear wing – we spent a lot of effort there, being not focused on the other areas of the car.

“From Valencia onwards the focus will be to develop other areas of the car apart from this blown rear wing, because it is a complicated system that took a lot of resources out of our team.”

Domenicali reckons his team could have done better in Montreal last weekend, where Alonso fought hard with Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button but lost out badly lapping backmarkers.

“We could have done much, much, more in terms of result,” said Domenicali. “The performance that we had was really good, honestly, and the car was exactly the same as it was in Turkey where we were nine tenths behind.

“We need to be prudent before we do something exaggerated on one side or another. For sure the tyres are a key factor – and here we did the right choices in that respect.”

He added: “Going back to the championship, it is very, very open. I did a calculation that if we had won the race we would be leading the championship with Fernando.

“It means that everything is really very, very open and that is the motivation that we should have inside to make sure that we push race-by-race. Canada gave a picture that was totally different from the picture we had two weeks ago.”

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In the 800th Formula 1 GP for the Maranello outfit, Felipe Massa qualified in eighth position, with team-mate Fernando Alonso completing a disappointing day for team with the 12th fastest time.

Domenicali admitted the Italian squad has to react quickly if it is to stand a chance in the championship.

“These are certainly not the positions from which we would have liked to start the 800th grand prix in the history of the Scuderia, but we have to be honest and admit that today, our performance did not live up to our expectations,” Domenicali said.

“We have to react immediately, starting from tomorrow’s race, when we will try to bring home as many points as possible. Then we must accelerate the development of our car to be competitive at every type of circuit.

“Today, Felipe did the maximum, using all the potential available from his car and the tyres. Fernando did not have a perfect Q2 and missed the cut for the final part of qualifying: when the gaps are so close, it takes very little to be in or out.”

Massa, winner in Istanbul three times, agreed that the team needed to raise its game quickly.

“We were slower than our main rivals, so we will have to work very hard to get back to fighting for the top places and there can be no doubt about that,” he said. “Even if this is a track I like very much, today I could not do any better than eighth place.

“The team and I cannot be pleased about it, but we have to react calmly and analyse the reasons that have led to this situation. Now we will concentrate on tomorrow’s race: it will be tough but we will try and do our very best.”

Pablo Elizalde – Autosport

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Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso completed a total of 98 laps: 48 for the Brazilian and two more for the Spaniard. “As is always the case on the first day of a race weekend, it is difficult to draw any conclusions as to the hierarchy among the teams,” said Stefano Domenicali. “We worked on race preparation and on finding performance and we are reasonably happy with what we have seen. One has to be very careful when assessing the level of competitiveness, given we are up against very strong opposition: all the same, it did not strike me we were seeing anything very different to the previous six races of this championship.”

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With speculation mounting about who will partner Fernando Alonso from next year, Domenicali told the BBC on Thursday that Ferrari is almost certain to keep Massa for another year.

“Yes, I think so,” he said of Massa staying on.

When asked if he was sure, he said: “Yes.”

Massa has been with the team since the 2001 season and his contract ends at the end of this year.

Australian Mark Webber and Pole Robert Kubica have been linked with the seat.

Domenicali also insisted the team has been very happy with the performances of Alonso, despite some costly errors.

“I don’t want to speak about mistakes,” he added. “We are a group and the team do the best with the car and the drivers do the best with the performance.

“I’m very pleased with him. He came into team in a fantastic way and I think that he gave input to the team and I say let’s wait until the end of the season. He will be very strong – I have no doubt about that.”

Pablo Elizalde – Autosport

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Although Fernando Alonso is second in the drivers’ standings, and ahead of both Red Bull’s men, Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali believes the pace of the RB6 in Spain last weekend has acted as a wake-up call about its aerodynamic advantages.

And with the F1 calendar now heading for a series of tracks where downforce is key, Domenicali reckons his team must find more aerodynamic performance if it is stop Red Bull seizing the initiative in points terms.

“Red Bull did a step in terms of their own performance,” Domenicali said about the improved RB6 in Spain. “We saw it on Saturday and we saw it on Friday, but in all honesty we saw it in the race with the performance of Mark Webber. That is a reference for our side.

“We don’t have to over-react to that, but it is something that we need to look at very carefully. They [Red Bull Racing] have improved the efficiency of their car, so they are doing a very good job.

“If you look at the championship, they are really the quickest one because if I recall they have been on pole position since the beginning of the season, but they are third in the championship. That is a very important factor – don’t forget the reliability and don’t forget all the other things that are important for the package of the car.

“This situation gives us a push to work very hard at home, mainly to try to find on the aerodynamic side more downforce on the car. That is the area where we have to do a step ahead, because there are some other tracks where this will be fundamental and we cannot run the risk of having a not very efficient car.”

Domenicali also believes Ferrari needs to look closely as to why Red Bull appears to be so much better on softer tyres than the opposition – whereas its advantage is not so obvious on harder compounds.

“Why is not so clear at the moment,” he said. “It is something that our engineers need to understand. And also the other thing that we need to really understand properly is that the behaviour of our drivers is different depending on the tyres or the compound that we are using.

“So this is very effective on the performance of our package, and this is an area that we have to look at very carefully.”

Jonathan Noble – Autosport

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The Italian squad has introduced its own device for this weekend’s race after testing a preliminary version in the previous event in China.

Today’s results left the team positive about the device and Massa reckons the team is very likely to race it.

“I think the chance is big, so we will run that. I think there is a big possibility to carry on with it,” said Massa.

The Brazilian admitted, however, that he was disappointed with how his day had gone after finishing as eighth quickest.

“It was disappointing, especially the car balance wasn’t very good, we need to analyse better what direction we should go for tomorrow, and analyse what happened last time we were here, as I was quite happy with how the car was then.”

Massa said nonetheless that the updates introduced in Spain were working as expected.

“We brought new parts which definitely you can see some improvements. For sure we were not the only team who brought new parts, we saw a very strong Red Bull, a competitive McLaren and a competitive Mercedes, so it is something we need to analyse for tomorrow, but definitely what we brought to the car is working.”

Jonathan Noble and Pablo Elizalde – Autosport

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A report in The Times newspaper last week revealed that leading doctors were putting pressure on governments to investigate whether the red, white and black bar code that had featured on the Ferrari cars for several years was a clever way of promoting its title sponsor’s cigarette brand.

Ferrari reacted angrily to the claims – suggesting that the barcode design was not copyrighted by Marlboro owner Phillip Morris and that it had chosen the concept alone. The bar code also featured on the Ducati MotoGP bikes too, though.

Earlier this week, Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo labelled any claim that the design was promoting Marlboro as ‘nonsense.’

“Frankly, I find this argument completely pointless and it is verging on the ridiculous to claim that the colour red or a graphic design which shows a bar code could induce people to smoke,” di Montezemolo said on Ferrari’s website.

“At a time when, on the other side of the Atlantic they are fighting to provide a more equal health service, in the old continent of Europe, so called experts are racking their brains to come up with theories that have no scientific basis: I think there are more important matters to think about than a bar code.

“Therefore, it’s best not to waste any more time replying to this sort of nonsense or to those who are instrumental in wanting to stoke up the story.”

Despite that stance, Ferrari opted on Thursday to remove the barcode design from its cars immediately.

A statement issued by the team said: “Together with Philip Morris International we have decided to modify the livery of our cars starting with the Barcelona Grand Prix.

“This decision was taken in order to remove all speculation concerning the so-called ‘barcode’ which was never intended to be a reference to a tobacco brand.

“By this we want to put an end to this ridiculous story and concentrate on more important things than on such groundless allegations.”

Jonathan Noble – Autosport

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Both Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa have suffered engine issues in the opening flyaway events – with Alonso suffering two blow-ups that has left him in particular on the back foot in terms of his supply for the season.

With customer team Sauber having also encountered its share of engine issues, Ferrari conducted a detailed investigation into the matter after the Chinese Grand Prix.

And after finding out that there was an intrinsic problem with the design of the engine, Ferrari applied to the governing body to be able to make some improvements to the power units on reliability grounds.

The Maranello outfit was duly given approval and the modifications will be ready in time to be fitted to the F10 cars at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Although Ferrari has not outlined exactly what the issues were with the engine, they are believed to relate to air consumption, which could have been caused by leaking pneumatic valves.

A statement by Ferrari said: “A lot of work was carried out on the test bench, completing several long runs and this work produced some solutions which it is felt will solve the reliability problems experienced in Bahrain and Malaysia. The team therefore requested and received authorisation from the FIA to make some changes within the framework of the current engine regulations and these modifications will be fitted to the engines to be used in Spain.

“While since China, everyone in the Gestione Sportiva has been working hard as always on their various areas of activity, it is fair to say that over the past weeks, the staff in the engine department really produced a major effort, working night and day to analyse, evaluate and solve issues that have affected engine performance in past races.”

The Spanish GP will also see Ferrari fit the full version of the F-Duct to both drivers’ cars for the first time in practice, although a decision about whether the concept will be used for qualifying and the race will only be made after the results of the Friday sessions are in.

Jonathan Noble – Autosport

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With teams closing in on plans to use 670bhp 1.5-litre turbocharged engines from 2013, Felisa believes the sport should be even bolder in embracing the latest knowledge – and pursue the more economical Gasoline Direct Injection concept.

Speaking to AUTOSPORT’s sister publication Autocar at the Beijing Motor Show on Friday, Felisa says that F1 could improve its relevance to the road car industry by adopting such engines.

“If F1 has to develop something helpful for real driving conditions, then the best solution is for an engine that is turbocharged and GDI,” said Felisa. “That is what we would support.

“It is the best solution for driving efficiency and utilisation of the engine in a positive way.”

Earlier this week, Mercedes Benz motorsport boss Norbert Haug said he too expected smaller power units to be adopted – but urged caution for those who thought it would be possible to make the sport totally ‘green’.

“The fascinating thing about Formula 1 is it’s fast, it’s loud, it’s on the limit,” he told AUTOSPORT. “We can discuss green initiatives, but Formula 1 needs to be technically driven. If you fly from Europe to Japan on a 747, you would use more fuel than an entire F1 season. We need to see the whole picture.

“We need to be mindful that we are building the cleanest cars we can. The engine will be downsized in 2013 because the fuel consumption has to go down, and we need to cut carbon emissions. But we must not think that a 700bhp engine is going to be the greenest car ever, because that’s not great.”

Jonathan Noble – Autosport

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“As it happens quite often, there’s always someone who wants to create some confusion,” Massa said on Ferrari’s website on Tuesday.

“The situation between me and Fernando is the one it always has been and an overtaking manoeuvre won’t change it for sure.

“I already explained after the race what happened and I think it’s useless doing it again, but obviously there’s someone who doesn’t want to understand.

“If I’ve spoken to Fernando? Sure, just like we talk to each other every day when we’re on the track. We both know very well what Ferrari wants from us drivers and what we have to do on the track,” added the Brazilian.

Alonso was also critical of reports suggesting a rift between him and Massa, and the Spaniard reckons the matter is not even worth discussing.

“I’m surprised by what I’ve been told. I already said it in Shanghai: this episode is creating a stir just because it happened between two team-mates,” he said. “If the other car would have been green or grey, we’d all be celebrating this manoeuvre, but instead we’re just losing time with polemics, where there is nothing to say.

“Felipe and I are racing and we know that the team’s interest is the most important thing. We know how to behave and we’ve shown it on other occasions during these first races.

“It’s definitely not the duels on the track, creating problems inside the team and I know this by experience. If someone wants to make a fuss, it definitely won’t ruin the spirit of Ferrari.”

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