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Formula One
F1:  Ferrari Will Keep Their Feet On The Ground
Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali says the team is taking nothing for granted...
Adam Cooper  | http://www.speedtv.com  |  Posted March 15, 2010   Balen (BEL)
Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali (Left) saw his two drivers finish first and second Sunday at Bahrain. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali says he’s delighted with the one-two finish in Bahrain, not least because it came after the disappointing 2009 season – the worst since the start of the Schumacher/Brawn/Todt era.

However he insists that with 18 races to go the team is not taking anything for granted.

“When you have a bad season people say it was better in a different period, but that’s life, we know that,” said Domenicali. “The only way to react is to come back with results. But in any case what we can see is the car from this weekend is a good base to look ahead for the future.

“The season is very, very long, and we have to stay with the feet on the ground, because I am expecting all the others to be very aggressive, very competitive. But we’ve seen we have a good car in qualifying and also in racing conditions. The work that has to be done is a lot still, but we are starting from a good base.”

Domenicali says that it’s not clear where the main opposition will come from.

“I want to respect all the others. Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes are all strong, because now we will see who will do a different step of development, who will come up with new things sooner than the others, and we need to see what is the situation with tires in the future with different Grands Prix, different configurations, different temperatures.

“So I have a lot of respect for all the competitors, because we have seen this weekend everything is so close and marginal, and during a race, anything can happen.”

Domenicali admitted that the team still needs to keep a close eye on reliability. Both drivers had precautionary engine changes and Massa was told to stay clear of Alonso’s slipstream in order to keep temperatures down.

“If I have to say something for sure, we need to make sure that the reliability is 100% in all the parts, and we don’t have to suffer anything that will slow down our pace.

“The temperature of the engine is not a problem of the engine, it’s a problem of the cooling of the car, of the dynamic of the car, so I think on that we have to work to make sure we don’t have any more this kind of issue for the next hot races.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 25th season as a racing journalist in 2009. Born in London, England, he saw his first F1 race at age 10 in 1976. He began freelancing for Autosport magazine in 1985 and was on the fulltime staff from 1987-92. He then went freelance again, initially spending two years in Japan before following the 1994 Champcar series from a base in Indianapolis. He has not missed a Grand Prix since Suzuka ‘94, a run that has extended to Abu Dhabi ’09. Adam has written books about Eddie Irvine, Piers Courage and Michael Schumacher and hosts a race preview show on Sirius XM. He has written about F1 for SPEEDtv.com since 2005. Check out Adam's Blog or follow him on Twitter

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