Team boss confirms that Scuderia have halted development
Last Updated: September 16, 2011 10:14am
Domenicali: Ferrari have halted development of 2011 car
Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali has confirmed that they have halted all development of their 150 Italia chassis in order to concentrate on next season.
This year's World Championship has been a disappointing campaign for the Scuderia, who have secured just one race victory from 13 grands prix.
Lacking the pace needed to challenge Red Bull for race wins or the drivers' and constructors' titles, Domenicali stated a month ago that any decision to stop developing this year's car would be based on their performances in Belgium and Italy.
Neither grand prix went their way, though, despite Fernando Alonso leading both.
Ferrari's relative lack of pace was sorely evident as the laps counted down both times, with the Spaniard falling off the podium at Spa and only just holding on for a top-three finish in Italy.
Their problems this year have been put down to both a lack of downforce and an inability to get heat into the car's Pirelli tyres.
Now, with Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel seemingly on course to retain their respective titles, Domenicali has confirmed that Ferrari are giving up on this year's campaign.
"We have stopped the development (of the car)," the Italian told the BBC. "It is very, very, very, very, very difficult now."
"We were expecting a bigger step in our development in Spa. Unfortunately we discovered it was the opposite so we took a step back, and that was also a step back for Monza."
Stability
New technical director Pat Fry said he hoped that by turning their full focus to next year's car, coupled with near stability in the technical rules, Ferrari can hit the ground running when pre-season testing starts again in February.
"The stability should help," said Fry. "But it does not mean that automatically you will be able to catch up your opponents.
"We know we have a gap to recover in terms of performance and we need an extra effort to get rid of it: this is one of the main targets of the winter time."
He added: "Adrian (Newey)'s Red Bulls have been the quickest cars in the last two or three years.
"(But) to be honest I do not think this is a man-against-man sport, not at all. It is a very complex sport in which a very talented engineer cannot make everything along as he needs the support of many people to succeed.
"At the moment, Red Bull are the reference; our aim is to win, whoever will be our opponents."
Credit: Sky Sports (www.skysports.com)
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