Fernando Alonso has said he believes Ferrari has what it takes to turn round a lacklustre start to the season in which the team has yet to finish on the podium.
"It was definitely not the start of the season we were hoping for, for us and all our fans," Alonso told the official Ferrari website. "Fifty points between the two of us is not much and we know our performance is not good enough at the moment, but we are aware that this can change very quickly.
"I trust in the team: I know what it's made of and I can feel the will to fight back from everyone at Maranello. In the past I have experienced, first as an opponent and then as an insider how capable the Scuderia is of staging a comeback.
"You only have to look at last year: first in Turkey and then in England, it was suggested we should already be looking to the following year, but we did not give up and we managed to be in the fight for the title right up to the final race. It sounds like a slogan, but it's the absolute truth: never give up in Formula One."
Alonso was realistic enough to warn the improvements would not come overnight. "This does not mean to say I am underestimating the seriousness of our situation, far from it," he said. "We have to work very hard to improve on every front. Success only comes when every element is operating at its best: the car, strategy, pitstops, drivers and everyone else included. We have to catch up and we cannot allow ourselves to lose too much time, especially as the others won't be twiddling their thumbs over the coming weeks."
He pointed to the dramatic turnaround at McLaren, where a pre-season ho-hoper has become a race winner in a space of a few weeks, as a sign of how quickly things can change.
"After the final test in Barcelona, everyone reckoned the McLarens were nowhere and then they always got on the podium, ending up with a win in China. At the same time, others were saying Vettel was unbeatable and then in Shanghai, we all saw how things turned out in the end. Three races are not yet enough to give a definitive judgement."
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