Ferrari boss issues rallying cry

(GETTY IMAGES)

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali is demanding an immediate response from his struggling team this weekend.

Ferrari has fallen behind Red Bull and McLaren in the battle for this season's Formula One world titles, the Maranello marque now finding itself vying with Mercedes and Renault in the chasing pack.

It was a poor showing from the legendary team in Turkey 10 days ago, with their cars lacking pace, resulting in Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso finishing seventh and eighth, 36 and 46 seconds adrift respectively.

That is not the form of a team who were expecting to challenge for the championships this year after their season-opening one-two in Bahrain.

Instead, Alonso and Massa trail championship leader Mark Webber by 14 and 26 points going into Sunday's race in Canada, which returns to the Formula One calendar after a year's absence.

And Domenicali has called on all within the team "to react immediately and show what we can do".

Domenicali knows Ferrari has it within their capabilities to stem the tide of underachievement and become winners and title contenders again.

"The ability to develop the car has always been a strong point for Ferrari and there is no reason why that should not be the case now as the people and our work methods are the same," said Domenicali.

"After the race in Turkey I mentioned to the media about the need to be innovative and creative, and I have reprised this message with our engineers.

"We are a strong and united group, and there is a strong desire to show what we are made of."