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Formula One News » Domenicali: Championships more difficult – but not impossible Posted on 31/08/2010

Ferrari came away from the Belgian Grand Prix with just a fourth place to show for its efforts and, as that was thanks to a strong performance from Felipe Massa, admitted that its championship chances were a lot slimmer than during F1′s summer break.

Fernando Alonso had closed to within 20 points of the championship lead after successive podium results in Germany and Hungary but, after dominating Friday free practice, the double world champion could only qualifying tenth, and then had his hopes of rescuing a good result dented – literally – by an errant Rubens Barrichello on lap one.

Although he subsequently recovered to eighth place, a rain shower in the closing stages caught Alonso out and, despite being fitted with full wet tyres, taking too much kerb at Malmedy proved his undoing.

“This weekend definitely did not end well for us, even if Felipe’s fourth place, at the end of an impeccable and error free race in conditions that were far from easy, is an important result,” Domenicali admitted.

“Fernando saw his race compromised right from the first lap, the unwitting victim of an accident, and then, despite fighting his way up the order, he ended up off the track in the sort of incident that can easily happen in a rain-affected race.

“Apart from that, and any other considerations, we must recognise that our performance in this grand prix did not match our expectations and interrupted a positive trend that began a few races ago. We have to understand why immediately and take the necessary countermeasures.

“The situation in both championships is certainly more difficult, but it is still not impossible for us to reach our targets. For those with short memories, I remember that, three years ago, we found ourselves in a much worse situation and we all know how it went in the end.”

Alonso, too, admitted that he had made his task a little more difficult – although some will argue that the Spaniard’s loss of form at Spa was due to the more stringent front wing tests that also seemed to take their toll on Red Bull’s RB6 – but remained similarly upbeat about closing back in on the championship leaders over the remaining six rounds.

“The first of the seven ‘finals’ went badly for me, and for two of the other five finalists, while the remaining two got the maximum results,” he said, rerferring to the 1-2 result for points leaders Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber.

“That means we will have to make up the ground lost today somewhere else. It is very disappointing, because this is a bad result, but it does not mean I have given up on my chances of winning the title.”

http://www.f1.co.uk/belgian/