Stefano Domenicali motivated by Ferrari's testing form
Domenicali is confident Ferrari can fight it out for wins during the opening rounds of the 2010 season
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By Adam Leveridge. |  |
Tuesday, 02, Mar 2010 11:11
By Adam Leveridge.
Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali believes the Maranello-based outfit has the pace to fight it out at the front of the field in Bahrain after a strong and consistent performance during 15 days of testing in February.
Ferrari demonstrated good pace straight out of the box at the first pre-season test of the year in Valencia, and immediately set tongues wagging about the possibility of a return to form for the scarlet cars.
This followed a dismal year in 2009 when they struggled to get to grips the radically revised aerodynamic regulations, scoring just a single victory at the Belgian grand prix at Spa and ending the season in fourth in the constructors', behind their arch nemesis McLaren.
Domenicali is confident Ferrari has a strong package with the F10 and he believes the Italian squad will be competitive in what he predicts will be one of the most closely fought seasons in formula one history.
"We're satisfied with the work done in these four test sessions, especially because we completed the programme we had set up," said Domenicali.
"First of all it was important to get to a good level regarding reliability and I think that we can say that we've reached our goal, although we have to stay really concentrated and improve wherever we can.
"What we could see and considering all the unknown factors in the testing I think that we've shown that we can be competitive and are part of the top group in terms of pure performance and also on the long run.
"This is an important result considering how we ended the last season just a little more than four months ago in Abu Dhabi; we've worked a lot over the last months."
Domenicali is looking forward to a "balanced" season, during which four teams are expected to be in a position to fight for race wins and the championship titles.
"Before the tests we thought that there might be four teams able to fight for the title but, what we've seen so far there might be even more," said Domenicali.
"Furthermore there are still some questions to be solved, such as the tyres' behaviour at high temperatures and the race strategy management.
"With the performances so close together a slight mistake will be enough not to enter Q3, which means that we have to give it our all, all the time: team, drivers, car.
"We know that we're fighting against very strong teams from a very different season, who have worked very hard during the winter and who want to win.
"We're ready for the challenge ahead."