Points not podium for Ferrari in Bahrain, says Stefano Domenicali

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali admits his team will be looking for points in Bahrain on Sunday, but doubts either Fernando Alonso or Felipe Massa will be able to secure a podium finish.

Alonso, who is 14/1 to win the Drivers’ Championship, did manage to secure the win in the Malaysian GP earlier this season but updates to the Ferrari car are not expected until the fourth race of the season in Spain on May 13.

Domenicali admits a podium finish is probably out of the question for Ferrari in Bahrain this weekend, but remains optimistic for the remainder of the campaign once the significant updates are added.

He told Sky Sports: “We knew that China and Bahrain, with the problems that we have with the car, are the worst tracks (for us) at this moment.

“What I can say is that we really hope we will be able to manage and to achieve more points than we have scored to date. Because that is still the objective of the Bahrain race.”

Despite the problems Ferrari have encountered with their car to date this season Alonso remains in the hunt for the Drivers’ Championship, and Domenicalli admits it is vital they solve their issues quickly in order to give the Spaniard the best possible chance of securing a third world title.

He added: “The problem we have with this car, the fact that Fernando is only eight points behind the leader, means that we need to make sure that we maximise at home with our engineers the fact that we bring updates to the car as soon as possible and this is really the thing that will make a diference at the end of the season.”

Alonso is 2/7 to finish amongst the points in Bahrain, while Massa can be backed at 2/1.