Ferrari chief Stefano Domenicali says that he is confident there will be no repeat of Ferrari's turgid performance in 2011 next season, saying that the technical changes the team has made for next year will help them to fight back.
The Italian squad had a dismal 2011 season by their own exalted standards, winning just a single race when Fernando Alonso took victory at Silverstone.For 2012, the team is planning to fight back with a more aggressive car design, and have made changes in their design team including replacing former technical chief Aldo Costa, who has since moved to Mercedes.
And Domenicali has said that he believes the changes they have made will put them in a good position to be competitive next year.
"From one side we tried to react from the organisational point of view, to do some changes," the Ferrari chief rambled to fans in a video interview on Friday.
"And we have done quite a lot of changes and we will have some more changes at the beginning of next year."
He went on: "Secondly of course we want to make sure that, with a humble approach, we don't underestimate any area of development.
"With the new regulations there is no such a big effect on the so-called blown diffuser, so we need to make sure that the car, from a general point of view, is very efficient and is able to create downforce because that was the main problem that we had this year.
"And I have to say that we need to be realistic and I believe in the choices that our technical people have taken to make sure there are no big surprises when we start the season."
He added that: "I'm confident about the job of the people who are here day and night because there is a great will to the place where we should be."
The team has not yet confirmed a launch date for their new car, but have said that the car will be ready for the start of the limited pre-season testing programme in February.
"We are targeting the first week of February," Domenicali muttered when asked about the launch, "We don't know the day exactly but that's when we should be ready with the new car."
The team were criticised in 2011 for a conservative car design, while the team struggled to get their off-throttle engine mapping programme working efficiently.
The single win at Silverstone came when the mapping was briefly banned by the FIA.
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