Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali has admitted that the Italian team needs to improve their car in all areas for the 2012 F1 season, but remains "confident" that they can hit back after their disappointing 2011 campaign.
The Italian squad were a well-beaten third best in 2011, only taking a single win when Fernando Alonso secured victory at the British Grand Prix.
The team's car design was criticised as being too conservative compared to their rivals, and they struggled to get on top of the in-vogue blown diffuser technology.
But with blown diffusers banned for 2012, Domenicali has expressed his confidence in the team making an improvement, while admitting that all aspects of their car needed to be improved.
"We know we have to improve the car all around because otherwise you cannot be competitive," he told reporters after the Brazilian GP.
"For sure the main area of improvement is aerodynamics and, with the regulations, this is the reason why we have anticipated the development of the car."
He went on: "We try to have more time in the wind tunnel, try to work as hard as we can in the new situation where we can rely more on the data we are analysing.
"[We will] work hard, head down and looking forward to coming back next year."
But he admitted tht the team would not be sure of their competitiveness until the first race of 2011, saying that the team was aiming to be more "aggressive" next season.
"The facts come out when you go on the track. The only thing I can say is that we have put down targets that are very aggressive and we work around these targets," he rambled.
"We need to wait and see what the others are doing and wait and see where the cars will be in the first qualifying in Australia. But I am confident we will do a good job."
Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso suggested that the team has flattered itself compared to their ultimate performance in races in 2011, after being over-aggressive during the soft tyre phase of races.
"I think we have been over performing a little with the soft tyre," the Spaniard was quoted as saying by Autosport.
"I don't think we had the pace to be in front of the McLarens and, for whatever reason, what we do at the start, we risk in the first couple of laps and we find ourselves in a position that is not our real position in terms of pace, in terms of how quick we are."
He added: "We know what we are lacking is only a more competitive car, so we need only six or seven tenths on the car.
"And with that I am sure that Felipe [Massa] and me will be on the podium very often."
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