Domenicali: Ferrari must react

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali has called for “a reaction” from within the Scuderia following their pre-summer break slump.

While Ferrari have struggled for qualifying form compared to rivals Mercedes and Red Bull, the team have at least then matched them during a grand prix.

But in Germany and Hungary, Ferrari accrued a combined total of just 26 points from those two races – with Fernando Alonso collecting 22 of those – to fall 83 behind Red Bull in the constructors’ championship.

Pirelli’s revamp of its tyres following the blowouts that occurred during the British Grand Prix at Silverstone may be a factor.

And Domenicali knows answers are needed to the questions that have been raised ahead of the next race in Belgium on August 25, when the second half of the campaign begins in earnest.

“I don’t know for sure what exactly is the problem,” said Domenicali.

“It appears we have apparently lost the gap we had at the first few races when our race pace was strong.

“But now we are not where we want to be, so we need to understand if this (the tyres) is the case (hurting Ferrari) and how to react.

“It’s something we need to analyse carefully because the structure of the tyres now is what we have until the end of the season.

“It seems, for example, Mercedes have solved the issue because they were suffering massively during a race.”

It is not only the tyres that appear to have played a part in Ferrari’s recent demise, but the introduction of new parts have also seemingly failed to work.

That is a major concern for Domenicali, who said: “We have improved the car for qualifying but not for the race.

“We have done a programme to be ready for Spa (Belgian GP) and hopefully we are able to manage it.

“But there is no reason to be feeling any negative pressure. I am expecting a reaction from my technical group and this is what matters.”