Domenicali: “Melbourne will only be the beginning of a long sprint”

The anticipation for the start of the 2013 World Championship is growing and the expectations on the competitiveness of the team are also growing. Scuderia Ferrari. It is natural, after a month of encouraging tests and the serenity demonstrated by the two great protagonists, Fernando Alonso e Felipe Massa, who will be back on track in the F138 in Melbourne's Albert Park in just over a week. We will have to wait until March 16, qualifying day, to be able to make the first real assessments of the performance of each car and never like this year, with the stability offered by the technical regulations, have predictions turned out to be a futile and random exercise.

But if we want to apply a certain logic and coherence, which goes beyond the enthusiasm and hope that the start of each season can generate, we cannot imagine that the teams that were competitive last season will not be competitive again this year. . Stefano domenicali, Team Principal of Scuderia Ferrari, asked to comment on the start of the season, declared: “Thinking of drawing conclusions after the first qualifying in Australia would be premature because it represents only the beginning of a long sprint that will end in November. For many reasons, however, it can be considered an important test bed to establish the forces at play. I expect the teams that finished in the top positions in Sao Paulo to repeat their success in Melbourne too, probably with smaller margins, which is what we all hope for. What are the elements why I am convinced that Ferrari has taken a step forward? The new company organization, the working method, the modification of the tools we used to set up the work of this car, the consistency of the results with respect to our objectives and what we saw in the tests just concluded which finally seems to tell us that we are on the path correct, a different path than in the past. Therefore, making an analysis purely focused on ourselves, unless someone else has done an extraordinary job, I am convinced that Ferrari will be able to fight it out until the end and a podium in Australia would be a good starting point on which to build on Ferrari's successes. that we need. Furthermore, beyond the current performance of the car, the work in the Wind Tunnel is an element that gives confidence in looking forward in the aerodynamic field where there is 90% performance and where we can work with a certain tranquility. The stability of the regulations is also the guarantee that there will be no surprises in terms of particular creative solutions that can make a difference, but I am convinced of this above all in light of the choices we made last year".

Regarding the competition during the year, Domenicali added: “I am sure that during the course of the season the competition will reduce because the commitment required from all the teams for the 2014 project is absolutely not to be underestimated. We are talking about a totally different vehicle on an overall level and there is a risk of arriving unprepared: the smaller the organizations, the more they will necessarily have to, and well in advance, invest resources in the new project while as regards the large teams , the exercise will be to balance the resources necessary to maintain development to be fully competitive with respect to the attention that will have to be dedicated to 2014 so as not to risk falling behind".