Ferrari hopes to respond to its disastrous start to the Formula One season already next weekend at the Malaysian Grand Prix, team principal Stefano Domenicali said on Monday.
Speaking a day after Ferrari failed to get even one point in Sunday's season opener here in Australia, Domenicali said Ferrari was well aware that Brawn GP, the former Honda team which took first and second place on Sunday, was ''very, very much faster'' than the other teams.
After a disappointing qualifying session on Saturday, neither Ferrari finished the Australian Grand Prix, with Kimi Raikkonen developing a problem with his differential while Felipe Massa dropped out with suspension woes.
Ferrari also saw its tire strategy backfire when the soft slicks they started with were already worn out after only five laps.
''It was a day to forget in regard to results, but one to remember in trying to figure out what went wrong and how we can fix this,'' Domenicali said.
''From this point of view it is perhaps a good thing that the next race is just a week after the last one. We will have a chance to come back, on the condition that we take a close, hard look at reality and realise that we have a lot of tough competition out there''.
Looking ahead to the next race, Domenicali observed that the track in Sepang is different from the one in Australia ''especially in regard to (tire) grip. The race should give us a pretty clear indication where we stand given that in less than a week we can't make any major aerodynamic changes''.
Looking ahead to the rest of the season and comparing to to 2008, Domenicali said that ''this year is going to be a lot rougher. Brawn GP is very, very fast, strong and consistent. But I'm cautious by nature and we've only had one race so far. And since there are 16 left to go I don't think we need to pack it in just yet''.
The driving force behind Brawn GP is Ross Brawn, who was part of Ferrari's 'Dream Team' - that also included driver Michael Schumacher and team principal Jean Todt - which gave Ferrari six constructors' championships in a row (2000-2005) and five straight titles for Schumacher (2001-2005).
The former Ferrari strategy expert took a year's sabbatical from the Italian team at the end of the 2006 season and later resigned, before joining Honda for the 2008 season.
