Ferrari: Our F1 season is not in crisis

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Ferrari have hit back at claims they are on the slide after being comprehensively out-performed by McLaren's Lewis Hamilton in the last two Formula One races.

The Italian squad were left in the Englishman's slipstream in Britain and Germany as drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa struggled.

But team boss Stefano Domenicali defended his team's performance in a season that has seen the defending constructors' champions take five wins in 10 races.

"Despite the fact the last two races have been negative for us, the Scuderia is definitely not in crisis," he said ahead of Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix.

"The team is still leading the constructors' championship and theoretically one of our drivers could again be back at the top of the drivers' classification on Sunday night.

"Just as we never felt we were unbeatable after our French GP victory so too we do not feel all is lost after the British and German events. The entire squad is doing its best to overturn this situation."

The last time Ferrari won a race was in France on 22 June, where Massa was followed home by Raikkonen.

Raikkonen, the reigning world champion, has not taken the checkered flag since the Spanish Grand Prix in April.

But he suffered a similar dry patch last season before turning his season around and overhauling Hamilton to win the title, as Domenicali recalls.

"We have come from behind before and in fact, we have emerged as the top team at the end of the season, having been in much greater difficulty than we are now," he added.

"We are on a similar points tally to last year, we have won half the races so far and, indeed, taken half the pole positions.

"If we look at where Ferrari was in 2007 after 10 races, today we are in a much better position and this year there is one more race than last, which gives us even more opportunities to fight back."

Raikkonen is staying calm as he looks to get back on top of the rostrum at a circuit where he claimed victory in 2005 for his then team McLaren.

He said: "We just passed the halfway point of the season, so it's important to always gain points. Excluding Hockenheim, I was always in a position to win and I hope success will come soon.

"It's useless to cry over spilled milk: we are looking ahead, with eight races to go. At the end we'll do the maths."

Massa added: "I think we understand the problems we had in Germany and although I don't want to get into detail, let's say that I'm quite confident that we'll have a very different performance in the next races."

 

I'll tell you what, we'll go splits on one I have it for 6 months then I'll ship it to you for your six months. I get it for the first 6 months then you get to dig it out of a tree, rebuild it and after you spend 3 years doing that I'll take it back and have a full 2 1/2 years to try and keep it on the road at full speed.

 

Pounding around in a car like that until it broke or crashed? I could feel like Gilles Villeneuve!