F1: Ferrari desperate to hunt down Red Bull in remaining races of the season

The next Grand Prix is the night race in Singapore

Ian Parkes
Wednesday 18 September 2013 12:06 BST
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Fernando Alonso practising at Spa
Fernando Alonso practising at Spa

Ferrari will switch from Prancing Horse to preying wolf as they seek to hunt down Red Bull in the battle for this year's Formula One world titles.

That is the view of team principal Stefano Domenicali as Ferrari take to the streets of Singapore and the Marina Bay circuit this weekend seemingly facing an uphill struggle to be crowned champions.

In the constructors' championship, Ferrari have narrowly edged ahead of Mercedes into second place, but are 104 points adrift of Red Bull.

As for the drivers' standings, Alonso appears to represent Sebastian Vettel's only realistic challenger as the Spaniard trails the German by 53 points with seven races remaining.

After dominant back-to-back wins for Vettel in Belgium and Italy, the writing is on the wall as he closes in on four successive titles.

Domenicali can only hope Vettel slips up, and if so then Ferrari and Alonso will be their to pounce, as was the reverse last year when the former took advantage of issues for the latter.

"At Monza (Italian Grand Prix) we clearly saw Red Bull were stronger," said Domenicali.

"We tried our maximum, and we had a fantastic race, achieving the position (runner-up) we had with Fernando. It was a shame because I also wanted Felipe (Massa, fourth) on the podium.

"But when you are fighting a stronger car you play with strategies, which is not always easy.

"It is clear with the fact Red Bull showed great pace that the fight for the championship is really very difficult, but it doesn't change our approach.

"We need to stay in there and take our opportunities should they come, to jump and get closer because the experience of last year is still burning for us.

"If something happens to them we need to be there, like the wolf, to attack them, so we need to stay tuned and connected."

Like any team, though, Ferrari are drawing closer to fully committing themselves to next season given the significant change in powertrain regulations.

Despite Ferrari's resources, even they cannot afford to dwell too long on what may be another failed attempt at winning the title.

"With regards to the decision of how and when we are going to swap all the resources to the new car, we are very close to the final decision," added Domenicali.

"That is despite the fact in these past few weeks we have already been progressively shifting our resources, as was planned by us before the summer break."

PA

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