Ferrari Chief Designer Gives First Part of F1 Season a 6 Out of 10

Despite challenging for the World Drivers' Championship last year, FerrariFerrariItaly, 1947 > present233 models
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said that it had a mediocre car for the entire season. It appears that it is using the same tactic this season. Ferrari F138Ferrari F138Italy, 2013 > 20138 photos
chief designer Nikolas Tombazis gives the team's performance this season a six out of 10, but he thinks that the team could still fight for the championship at the end of the season. 

“I think in general, the first results mean we can be reasonably optimistic about the rest of the season, with a sense that we can fight for wins and the championship. However, if I was to score our overall performance, I would only give it a 6 out of 10," said Tombazis.

Tombazis admits that the team has had its successes this season with two podiums so far and improved performance from Felipe Massa. However, It has also had its fair share of defeats including Alonso's failed front wing in Malaysia and broken DRS in Bahrain. 

"We identified areas where, in the past few years, we were a bit understaffed, which meant people were under pressure and did not have time to think about what could make the car go faster. It is working, but there is room to improve still further, even though this aspect has definitely contributed to the improvement in performance that we have seen so far this year,” he said.

Ferrari began building its new wind tunnel late last year, and it will be ready in the coming months. It will allow the team to due aerodynamics testing on a full-size F1 car. Previously, Ferrari could only use scale models in its wind tunnel, and it blames some of its problems last season on the aerodynamic differences between the scale model and full size car. In the mean time, Ferrari has used Toyota Motorsport GmbH's wind tunnel in Cologne. 

"Overall, depending on the circuit, some of these strengths and weaknesses will be highlighted and therefore, based on what we have seen so far, we do not expect a constant performance level over the next few races, but rather we do expect to be reasonably competitive in most conditions," he said. 

Tombazis says that Ferrari has upgrades ready for the Spanish Grand Prix, but he expects that the other teams will as well, which will cut any advantage that Ferrari might have. The upgraded F138 will have new bodywork, floors and wings.