Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali says the Italian team is not getting carried away with its dominant performance at the first pre-season test in Valencia this week.
Felipe Massa was quickest on the first two days of the test, before new signing Fernando Alonso clocked the best time of the week on his single day in the car on Wednesday – some 0.6s faster than the best effort by a non-Ferrari (Kamui Kobayashi’s Sauber on Tuesday).
Domenicali, however, is remaining cautious about the team’s form – pointing out that the potentially huge differences in fuel loads, combined with the fact that Red Bull has yet to launch its new car, mean it is much too early to draw firm conclusions from the headline times.
“We know very well that the testing lap times, especially this year, have to be handled with care,” he told Ferrari’s official website.
“Using an Italian expression from football, we’re still in ‘August football’.
“We can’t forget where we were in terms of performance at the last grand prix last year.
“There is still a lot of work to do to close the gap and there are still many problems we have to solve.
“And then we don’t know the petrol loads the other cars had on board, so it’s impossible to get a clear idea of the relative strengths on the track.
“Maybe someone also wants to play hide and seek and some still have to present their cars.”
Domenicali suggested the scale of the challenge Ferrari faces in attempting to rebound from its lacklustre 2009 campaign means it is unlikely to return to its absolute peak overnight.
“There are no miracles in Formula 1,” he said.
“If you want to be fast you have to work hard for months and months and then you’ll meet your competitors, who have as much capacity and are as motivated as you.
“We can’t take anything for granted and we shouldn’t delude ourselves by [early] indications, which could be completely misleading.
“We can’t work like in football where two good or bad results are enough to [take you] from riches to rags or vice versa.”
Having identified improved reliability at the start of the season as a key goal for 2010, Domenicali said the F10’s performance on this front was the most pleasing aspect of this week’s test.
“If there is one thing we’re really satisfied with then it’s the reliability the car has shown,” he said.
“The more than 1,400 kilometres (870 miles) driven are a very good start, and we need to ensure that the intense work at the test stand and in terms of simulations over the weeks before the debut on the track will bear fruit.
“In Valencia we also started to get to know the new Bridgestone tyres’ behaviour also related to the petrol load.
“But the data is still absolutely relative: this track is not particularly demanding on the tyres and the temperatures weren’t the ones we’ll have for example during the season’s first three races.”
He added that Massa and Alonso were thrilled with the outcome of the test and have already pinpointed some areas where the F10 could be further improved.
“They were both very happy with how things went, especially regarding the car’s reliability,” he said.
“They are both extremely motivated and have a great desire to drive; it would have been frustrating if we hadn’t started on the right track here.
“Both Felipe and Fernando know that we have to work a lot and they have already given many indications where we have to improve the car.”