• Ferrari news

Aggressive Ferrari set to roll-out upgrades

Fernando Alonso is looking forward to driving an updated F10 © Getty Images

Enlarge

Related Links

• Drivers:
• Fernando Alonso

• Teams:
• Ferrari

Ferrari will embark on an aggressive development plan over the coming races in order to rein in the pace-setting Red Bulls.

Fernando Alonso won the first race of the season for Ferrari, but the Italian team is currently some way off the pace of Red Bull in qualifying and the race. It's F-duct, which was fully working in Spain, failed to close the gap and Alonso said his team's primary focus is now increasing the overall level of downforce.

"Well, regarding the improvements on the car, there is a very aggressive plan of developing the car with some good gains and good improvements to come in the next races, so we are very optimistic on that," said Alonso. "The championship is long. There will be some circuits where we will be closer to Red Bull and some circuits like this weekend [Spain] where we know it's going to be more difficult but overall, for the 19 races, I think we have a package, a car that can fight for the World Championship which is the main goal.

"We know the areas which will give aerodynamic improvements. Basically, I think, we saw this weekend here in Barcelona how important the aerodynamics of the car are and the maximum downforce and we were struggling a little bit more than we wanted. Nothing new.

He added that being second in the standings after five races puts him in a prime position to fight for this year's title.

"As for the championship, I don't know how many points I am behind Jenson now, three? It's just a very early part of the championship," he said. "Better to be in the first three or four positions than to be eighth or ninth in the championship for sure but I think you need the consistency, you need good results all through the year. We've had two engine problems, one gearbox problem, one jumped start and some chaotic races and we are three points behind the leaders, so we are happy."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.