Domenicali not giving lap times much importance

The message from Maranello one day after the first 2010 session is very clear: staying realistic and concentrating on the work. Nobody here at the Scuderia deludes oneself: the road of recovery from 2009 is still very long and difficult. The response from the three-day testing at the "Ricardo Tormo" circuit was positive, but can’t lead to any hasty conclusions despite the two Scuderia drivers being the only ones to go under 1m12s.

"We know very well that the tests’ lap times, especially this year, have to be handled with care. Using an Italian expression from football, we’re still in ‘August football’,” Stefano Domenicali, the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro’s Team Principal, told Ferrari.com.

"We can’t forget where we were in terms of performance at the last GP last year. There is still a lot of work to do to close the gap and there are still many problems we have to solve. And then we don’t know the petrol loads the other cars had on board, so it’s impossible to get a clear idea of the relative strengths on the track. Maybe someone also wants to play hide and seek and some still have to present their cars.”

Usually the first test session is used to collect as much data as possible to start verifying the car’s behaviour on the track. So it’s obvious that everybody worked in this direction, without looking for the limit. "If there is one thing we’re really satisfied with then it’s the reliability the car has shown. The more than 1,400 kilometres driven are a very good start and we need to ensure that the intense work at the test stand and in terms of simulations over the weeks before the debut on the track, will bear fruit," Domenicali said.

"In Valencia we also started to get to know the new Bridgestone tyres’ behaviour also related to the petrol load. But the data is still absolutely relative: this track is not particularly demanding on the tyres and the temperatures weren’t the ones we’ll have for example during the season’s first three races."

A comment dedicated to the two drivers: "They were both very happy with how things went. Especially regarding the car’s reliability. They are both extremely motivated and have a great desire to drive: it would have been frustrating if we hadn’t started on the right track here. Both, Felipe and Fernando, know that we have to work a lot and they already gave many indications where we have to improve the car."

Eventually Domenicali recommended caution: "There are no miracles in Formula 1: if you want to be fast you have to work hard for months and months and then you’ll meet your competitors, who have as much capacities and are as motivated as you. We can’t take anything for granted and we shouldn’t delude ourselves by indications, which could be completely misleading. We can’t work like in football where two good or bad results are enough to pass from riches to rags or vice versa."