Ferrari confident of making "good step" in Canada

Ferrari will be significantly faster in Canada than they were in Monaco as a result of a planned upgrade package, according to technical director James Allison.

Fernando Alonso finished fourth in Monte Carlo, while team mate Kimi Raikkonen was running a very strong third in the early stages, only for his podium hopes to be scuppered by contact with Max Chilton's Marussia while running behind the safety car - the first of a series of maladies which consigned the Finn to 12th at the finish.

Allison says such form is proof the team are developing well, and bolsters his conviction that the car's underlying pace will be markedly better when they travel to Montreal in a fortnight's time.

"In Monaco, we continued to analyse the areas in which the F14 T can be improved," Allison explained.

"Now we are looking ahead to the next race in Canada, where the package we will use is a good step faster than the car we raced last weekend."

He warned, however, that Ferrari's hopes of a scoring just a second podium of the 2014 season would also be contingent on what upgrades their rivals have lined up for the seventh round of the season.

"While our development programme has progressed well in recent weeks, it is hard to predict exactly what this will mean for the competitiveness of the F14-T, as we do not know what steps our competitors plan to bring to Montreal," he added. 

"So any improvement has to be seen in relative terms, hoping that the track will deliver an answer worthy of all the efforts we have made so far." 

Allison, who joined Ferrari in September 2013, said Ferrari are also working on a new technical approach intended to give their designers vital creative space.

"We must be able to make the most of the creativity and originality of our engineers," he commented. 

"We know there is no magic wand, but there is a wealth of talent at Ferrari and we are working on an implementation and an approach to the work which allows it to emerge."

After six rounds of the 2014 season, Ferrari are third in the constructors' standings on 78 points, 21 behind Red Bull and 11 ahead of Force India. Alonso's third place in China is their best result of the year to date.

Ferrari: Raikkonen will prove his class

Ferrari insist Kimi Raikkonen will rapidly get on top of his early 2014 struggles and reassert himself as a Formula One frontrunner.

Raikkonen has found it difficult to get comfortable with the F14 T and has been outperformed by team mate Fernando Alonso as a result - he is yet to beat the Spaniard after the first four Grands Prix of the season, and has racked up 11 points to Alonso's 41. In China, he finished more than 50 seconds adrift of his team mate.

Raikkonen also trails Alonso in qualifying, although he did have the edge in Bahrain where he lined up fifth, four spots ahead of his team mate.

Ferrari's chassis technical director James Allison believes Raikkonen will soon be back to his best however, tipping the Finn for a rapid resurgence.

"Kimi is working extremely well with this team, collaborating extremely well with his engineers, with the other car, and helping us drive this car forwards; helping to show us where it is weak and helping us to make it stronger," Allison said. 

"He has class written all over him, and we know that within a very short space of time we will also be seeing the results on the track."

Allison also paid tribute to Alonso, saying his form over the opening four races has been phenomenal.

"With Fernando we have seen an extraordinary level of performance, scavenging every possible point at every possible opportunity," he said. "We have to say thank you to him for what he has managed to do with the car so far this year.

"We are very fortunate to have two good drivers with impeccable pedigree. Until we deliver both our drivers a car they can really put to work on a track, we are just fortunate to have these guys helping us drive the programme forward."

Allison believes it is imperative for Ferrari to continue finding gains at every remaining Grand Prix, in order to continue the improvement the team enjoyed between Bahrain and China.

"The performance we saw at China - was that the real performance of the car, or was it Bahrain?," he said. "In fact it is a mistake to think in those terms, because it wasn't the same car at those tracks: between Bahrain and China we improved the car quite substantially. 

"That is the key to having a successful season: you need to keep improving at every race. If we can do that successfully, bringing a meaningful amount of performance to every race, we will keep seeing a step forward."

(source: f1.com)