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Ferrari won't give up on 2010 car

ESPNF1 Staff
June 1, 2010 « Red Bull aims to move on as McLaren looks to pounce | »
Ferrari will not stop the development of its F10 © Sutton Images
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Ferrari is not prepared to give up on its 2010 car, despite falling dramatically off the pace at last weekend's Turkish Grand Prix.

Fernando Alonso failed to make the Q3 qualifying session at Istanbul Park, while Felipe Massa was the team's highest placed finisher - behind the Red Bulls, the McLarens, the Mercedes and the Renault of Robert Kubica.

Ferrari's F10 will feature a special low-downforce bodywork package in Montreal next weekend, before a big update is debuted at Valencia later this month. It is rumoured that the Valencia upgrades will include a major repackaging of the rear end and exhaust system, an area that Red Bull has exploited with its innovative RB6.

But team boss Stefano Domenicali denied that if the new parts fail to push Ferrari back towards the front of the grid, it will begin to focus on 2011.

"We are not going to stop developing this car - we are not throwing away these races so far," he said. Even though the Italian media is decrying Ferrari's "disaster" and "crisis", Alonso is only 14 points off the lead of the drivers' championship.

Domenicali insisted: "We will continue working on the F10 until the end of the season. The championship is still open and we have seen that anything can happen in the races. We will not give up."

Alonso agreed Ferrari is still in a position to fight for the title, but is concerned that no matter how good the Valencia upgrade is, it will not be enough to close the gap to the front.

"We know that McLaren and Red Bull are very far away and we don't know if that's enough. We have to work hard," he said. "We don't know how long it is going to take, but the truth is that we are almost eight tenths from Red Bull and 6 or 7 tenths from McLaren, and these developments [for Valencia] are not going to give us that much."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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