Stefano Domenicali, the Ferrari Team Principal, is predicting a close season in 2010, and believes that a number of teams will be challenging the Scuderia for race wins.
Speaking after his team had returned from pre-season testing, Domenicali told how Ferrari had completed their programme. “First of all it was important to get to a good level regarding reliability and I think that we can say that we've reached our goal. Although we have to stay really concentrated and improve wherever we can.
“We have to say that the team has done some really good work during the winter to get ready the best possible way for those 15 days of testing. With such a limited time for testing losing only a couple of hours due to a technical problem is a real pity.”
Domenicali is optimistic that Ferrari will be one of the top teams this season, and that the performance of F10 in relation to their rivals will be much improved from last season. “What we could see and considering all the unknown factors in the testing I think that we've shown that we can be competitive and are part of the top group in terms of pure performance and also on the long run.
“This is an important result considering how we ended the last season just a little more than four months ago in Abu Dhabi; we've worked a lot over the last months. Now we have to continue with the F10's development, because this will be the key to this season.”
However, the Italian is not complacent, and is aware that several teams have the chance of winning races in 2010. “Before the tests we thought that there might be four teams able to fight for the title. But what we've seen so far there might be even more. Furthermore there are still some questions to be solved, such as the tyres' behaviour at high temperatures and the race strategy management. Just to name a few.
“With the performances so close together a slight mistake will be enough not to enter Q3, which means that we have to give it our all, all the time: team, drivers, car. We know that we're fighting against very strong teams from a very different season, who have worked very hard during the winter and who want to win. We're ready for the challenge ahead!”