Stefano Domenicali: “Today we could have done much, much more…”

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali says that Fernando Alonso had the performance with which to win in Canada, despite the team adding nothing new to the car since its lacklustre performance in Turkey.

Alonso led for a while but lost both the lead to Lewis Hamilton and second to Jenson when he fumbled behind other cars.

“Today we could have done much, much more than what we’ve got,” said Domenicali. “The performance that we had today was really good, honestly. And the car was exactly the same as it was in Turkey, where we were nine-tenths behind. So we need to be prudent before doing something exaggerated on one side or the other side.

“For sure the tyres are a key factor, no doubt about it. I think today we did the right choices, in that respect. Today we could have done much more because certain unfortunate situations led Felipe on one side to start in the middle of two cars, and it was not possible to go anywhere else. Fernando was in the middle of backmarkers which unfortunately spoiled his race on the laps that were crucial for the race. Part of the game.

“But on the performance side we have to make sure we keep developing the thing, and the things that we are doing are real, and we bring more downforce on the tracks where we need it, and above all on the tracks where we have certain kind of tyres connected to the need of downforce, that is the key point.”

Domenicali insisted that Ferrari is very much in the title hunt. Alonso lies fourth, 15 points behind Lewis Hamilton.

“Going back to the championships, they are very, very open. If we would have won the race, we would have been leading with Fernando. That means everything is really very open, and that’s the motivation that we should leave inside to make sure that we push race by race. Today was a picture that was totally different from the picture that we had two weeks ago.”

Ferrari has a lot riding on a major update package for Valencia. Domenicali admitted that the team has spent too much time chasing its version of the F-Duct, which has slowed down development in other areas.

“For sure there is a need of a more aggressive push. If I may say, it was clear that we had concentrated too much effort on this ‘beep’, blown rear wing. I want to say ‘beep’ because I cannot say what I think!

“So we spent a lot of effort there, not being focussed on the other areas of the car. Now from Valencia onwards will be to develop the other parts of the car apart from this ‘beep,’ because it’s a very complicated system that took a lot of resources out of the global project.”