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Strong start is 'key' for Ferrari in 2013 - Domenicali

The Ferrari F138 was launched on Friday © Ferrari

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• Drivers:
• Stefano Domenicali

• Teams:
• Ferrari

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali has emphasised the importance of having a competitive car right from the start of the season and he is confident his team has made steps forwards in order to kick off its 2013 campaign on a more positive note than it did in 2012.

Ferrari struggled throughout testing last year and was over a second off the pace at the opening races, despite winning in wet conditions in Malaysia. Fernando Alonso still managed to challenge for the championship, ultimately missing out on the title by three points, and at the launch of the new F138 Domenicali said a good start would be crucial in 2013.

"The key objective we must have is of immediately delivering a competitive car to our drivers," he said. "During the winter in recent years we have unfortunately not been able to get to the beginning of the season right on the top of what we were doing and ahead of our competitors. So we have tried to look at our work organisation to improve on this and be much more effective in our preparations over these coming weeks."

Domenicali said the team had plenty of improvements planned for the first race of the season, which will be added to the car over the three pre-season tests.

"Our objective is to give our drivers a car that will allow them to compete right from Australia," he said. "As you can see this car is an evolution, but, as our competitors will do, we will be furthering this development at the tests."

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