Neale argued: “It’s a long season, and everything we do is designed to enable
us to win races. If we can get on that quickly, and there is no reason why
we can’t, we should be fighting for the championship.
“We are taking a number of upgrades to China – some are part of a routine
package, and some are in response to the moment. There is a lot of work to
do in practice but, as always with these cars, there is no magic bullet.
After the Chinese Grand Prix I think we will have more answers.”
After an encouraging start to the season, Ferrari are even more confident of
challenging for the title this year. Fernando Alonso took the race to the
wire last season despite a car which was for the most part slower than the
Red Bull.
This year Ferrari appear to have a far more competitive machine and Felipe
Massa, who leads Alonso in the standings, said he was feeling extremely
confident.
“I know we have only done two races, but I have a good feeling so far this
season,” the Brazilian said. “The work we did with the F138 over the winter
has taken us in the right direction and the car has much more potential.
“Of course, I always want to be fighting for the win, although that did not
work out in the first two races, but the signs were good with an excellent
race pace and now we have to keep moving forward race by race.
“All I can say is that there are definitely more than two teams that are
capable of fighting for the wins and the championship.
“Our team is one of them, with the car moving forward in the right way and it
is delivering results on track that we expected when looking at data in the
wind tunnel and the factory.”