Stefano Domenicali says that Ferrari must improve its qualifying performances and has to claw back some points on Sebastian Vettel over the next few race weekends.
“We are trying our best,” the Ferrari team boss said in a video chat with fans on Tuesday. “Our engineers are working very hard on this front, because we know we cannot let our drivers always start far back on the grid. Otherwise, doing a lot of overtaking moves isn’t much use. The aim is to at least be consistently on the top two rows. Obviously, we would like to always start from pole, which would make everything much easier, and that would be even more the case when you consider our car’s potential in the race itself.
“Our aim is to close the gaps to the lead in the next three races. I think we will be competitive in Silverstone, as we have been in the recent past at this track, but there are so many factors to take into account. The tires? It will depend a lot on the weather and the temperature. The team is calm and focused – we know we must get a good result but we are used to this type of pressure.”
Domenicali also made some interesting comments about Ferrari’s preparations for the turbo era.
“It will be a different sort of music to the one we are used to hearing, but we’ll soon get used to it,” he said. “It’s hard to say where we are compared to the others, because never before have we been working so much in the dark. We have set ourselves some performance targets, but we can’t know what the others are aiming for.
“It’s a huge challenge we are now tackling, not just with the engine specialists, but with the whole group of engineers and drivers. Furthermore, it will be very important to explain to the general public what will change in terms of the rules and how the car is run.”
