There's no reason not to believe in it - Todt

Ferrari team principal Jean Todt was philosophical after Sunday's extraordinary Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal. Drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa scooped just fifth place in a race punctuated by no less than four safety car periods, during one of which Massa went through a red light at the pit lane exit and was excluded from the race.

"Pointless to say that we are very disappointed, because we lost important points," said Todt in the Montreal paddock. "But we feel we were able to compete against all the others except the winner's team. For the second race in a row we have been beaten by a team more competitive than our's.

"It's a big shame that we had to have one car excluded but there's no complaint. You have a red light, if you don't stop in front of the red light you get excluded, so that's it and we have to analyse very carefully the situation. He did not pay attention, he was concentrating on getting out of the pits, not having any car passing him, and we did not tell him anything.

"But you know, honestly, it's in the rules, so if you have a procedure where you say be careful, you will have the red light, you don't have to see. We didn't say (that) to him and he did not pay attention."

Ferrari's performance was not what it had been on faster circuits earlier in the season, but Todt did draw a comparison to the team's performance two weeks before in the twisty streets of Monte Carlo. "On this type of circuit, it was the same kind of performance difference already in Monte Carlo two weeks ago. Maybe the characteristics of the circuits were more against our car. We were mainly missing traction in slow corners."

Todt, however, suggests that a greater indication will come next weekend at the US Grand Prix at Indianapolis, a faster track with different characteristics. "I'm not saying that next week we will be in front but at least it's a different kind of circuit. You have a lot of common points between Monte Carlo and Canada so we will have a different idea on a different circuit in one week's time."

There were other factors, however, which worked against Ferrari in Canada, as Todt explained. "It was a strange race because of the introduction of safety cars so definitely it did not help our strategy. We had to stop our two cars earlier than planned so we could not get advantage of it and that significantly compromised the race.

Furthermore, Raikkonen had several problems. "He slightly touched another car at the start (his teammate's), and then he got some parts of a crashed car in the front wing, as you could all see, and that definitely damaged the performance of his car." Raikkonen also had problems with the softer tyres he had to use at the end of the race, but not as severe as World Champion Fernando Alonso who finished two places behind.

Todt rejected suggestions that Ferrari had lost something in its managerial re-organisation over the winter, which had seen the departure of Ross Brawn and Michael Schumacher's change of roles. "I could understand the question if we hadn't scored any good results since the beginning of the season. But you must see the facts, and I think that since the beginning of the season we had four pole positions out of six races, we've won three Grands Prix so I don't think you can say it's a disaster for Ferrari. We are not happy about it but you see some other very strong teams who are there, who have not won any races, who did not set four pole positions."

As ever, Todt pointed out that, in spite of Ferrari being 28 points behind McLaren in the championship race, there is still a long way to go. "Eleven races, if we do a good job, it's just over two points per race, so Every time it's getting more difficult but there's no reason not to believe it."

And finally Todt paid tribute to Lewis Hamilton's remarkable performance in scoring his maiden win. "He's doing a great job with a great car and a great team and he's able to put everything together, but the season is not yet finished...