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Domenicali upbeat for 2012

Ferrari team principal admits the gap was too big

Last Updated: November 22, 2011 9:50am

Domenicali: In upbeat mood

Stefano Domenicali is upbeat about Ferrari's 2012 chances as he feels the team have learned lessons from the exhaust-blown diffuser debacle.

The Scuderia looked like the team to beat during pre-season testing early in the year, but they were found wanting once the action got underway as Red Bull, who pioneered the exhaust-blown diffuser, blew their title rivals away.

Team principal Domenicali concedes the Italian squad were not up to scratch when it came to technical development.

"It is pretty simple in my view," he said. "We were not competitive at the beginning, the gap was too big.

"We missed out from the technical point of view - the big theme of this year was the blowing exhaust diffuser. Then we caught up a little bit, we had quite a good beginning of the summer where we could have won two more races with no problems to be honest with you, and that is to do with the luck or bad luck of this year, and then we missed a big development for Belgium that made the difference in the second part of the season.

"And that is why basically at the end of July we stopped the development of the car and so basically we are trying now to maximise the performance that we had."

Close call?

Fernando Alonso looks set finish third in the drivers' championship and his and the team's solitary victory this year came at the British Grand Prix in July.

He has also finished on the podium on nine other occasions.

Domenicali says it proves that they were not too far off the pace of the front-runners a lot of the time.

"If you look at certain tracks where the effect of the exhaust is less, I would say you see the car is competitive - in certain conditions very competitive," Domenicali said.

"So that gives me good hope and good prospects for the future because as you know, the situation has been clear in terms of the exhaust position for next year, and everyone is trying to maximise what we understood this year to hopefully be ready for the beginning of the season next year."

Credit: Sky Sports (www.skysports.com)