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Positives to be taken from 2011 - Domenicali

Stefano Domenicali: "The car is competitive - in certain conditions very competitive" © Getty Images

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Stefano Domenicali said that Ferrari can take positives from the 2011 season despite only having secured one victory all year.

Having missed out on the drivers' championship at the last race of the season in 2010, hopes were high for Ferrari to challenge Red Bull this year. After pre-season testing it appeared that the two teams were closely matched, but McLaren quickly emerged as the main competition to Red Bull, and Ferrari struggled early in the season. Even with Fernando Alonso winning in Silverstone, attentions soon turned to the 2012 car, but Domenicali said that with a bit more luck the team could have had more victories.

"It is pretty simple in my view," Domenicali said. "We were not competitive at the beginning, the gap was too big. We missed out from the technical point of view - the big theme of this year was the blowing exhaust diffuser.

"Then we caught up a little bit, we had quite a good beginning of the summer where we could have won two more races with no problems to be honest with you, and that is to do with the luck or bad luck of this year, and then we missed a big development for Belgium that made the difference in the second part of the season. And that is why basically at the end of July we stopped the development of the car and so basically we are trying now to maximise the performance that we had."

With Alonso also having secured nine podium finishes this season, Domenicali pointed out that the car was fundamentally good, which should benefit Ferrari when exhaust-blown diffusers are banned for next season.

"If you look at certain tracks where the effect of the exhaust is less, I would say you see the car is competitive - in certain conditions very competitive. So that gives me good hope and good prospects for the future because as you know, the situation has been clear in terms of the exhaust position for next year, and everyone is trying to maximise what we understood this year to hopefully be ready for the beginning of the season next year."

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