Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali has reiterated that Ferrari has to improve its qualifying form after another strong race in Turkey – and he hopes to be able to force Red Bull into making mistakes.
Ferrari has set good times in race trim all year but Fernando Alonso has been compromised by starting fifth and having bad first laps.
“Overall we have improved, if you see the gaps in qualifying, we have reduced that,” said Domenicali. “In the race pace, I think we have reduced that [gap], but it was already good. The outcome of it is that we need to improve in qualifying, that’s for sure the thing that we need to make happen, starting already in Spain.
“We need to work all around the car because with such a competitive situation if you lose one area it’s difficult because the others will take advantage. For sure the area where we need to maximise our effort is on the aerodynamic side, and in qualifying also the usage of the exhaust system connected to the floor and that specific point.”
Domenicali didn’t want to elaborate on why the car was weaker in qualifying, but suggested that there was no obvious handling issue.
“I think that we have some ideas, because from a balance point of view we have some comments that are quite neutral in that respect. So we have ideas where we believe that is the area where there is something to work on, and this is the area where we should concentrate ourselves to improve that.
“If you look from the outside it’s difficult to explain to anyone why in qualifying there is such a gap, and in the race you are so competitive. I think we have understood, now we need to react already in Barcelona if possible.
“For sure this is what I’m expecting from my people, my engineers. I think that at least what we have seen this weekend is going in the right direction, and I’m expecting another step in that direction because if we do that it means two things, one we have understood the situation, and secondly we are working in the right direction.
“What I’m saying to my people is don’t think that the others will stay asleep. For sure all the other competitors will react and improve. I think that this year will be a very challenging season. We have seen so many different conditions, apart from the fact that the Red Bull was always the fastest car and the more reliable.
“But we will see. The pressure could also be on their side to keep that level of performance. So we will try to be one of the teams that will make the pressure on them. If there’s pressure they can make mistakes.”
Adam Cooper F1 
Ferrari should worry about their own handling of pressure rather than other teams’.
Poor strategy and pitstops have now badly affected Felipe in Malaysia and Turkey, and Alonso in China. They seem to have a constant problem with their strategy in that they react to other teams rather than leading the way.