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Ferrari still has weakness - Domenicali

Ferrari wants to push the F138 further up the grid © Sutton Images

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• Drivers:
• Fernando Alonso
• |
• Stefano Domenicali

• Teams:
• Ferrari

Ferrari says the F138's qualifying pace is still its Achilles heel, but is wary of making any changes that unsettle its race pace after wins in China and Spain.

Fernando Alonso won the Spanish Grand Prix from fifth on the grid at the weekend, but had to make up two position around the outside of turn three on lap one to put himself in contention. Team principal Stefano Domenicali said Ferrari could not rely on great starts from Alonso and would have to improve its one-lap pace while maintaining its strength with tyre management in the race.

"The priority for me is very clear," he said. "We don't have to unbalance the situation of our car at the moment, but we have to improve qualifying. We knew today that the key to the strategy was to attack and jump on the track, but it's not every time that you can do it. So without unbalancing our decent race performance we still need to improve qualifying to make sure we have cleaner air in front of us."

Domenicali is expecting the top teams to make just one or two more major steps in performance with the 2013 cars before focus shifts solely to the new engine formula in 2014.

"For me this weekend was important just to understand what the jump in performance from other teams, because from now until the end of July you may see, if possible, one or two steps in development but not more. Then you will see that some teams are forced to start work on the new car, with the big challenge that we face with the new project not being about staying within two or three tenths but within two or three seconds. I think that will be the crucial part of this season so that is why these are my priorities."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.