A long way to go in the championship battle Ferrari Team Principal Jean Todt was philosophical after Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix.
Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa scooped just fifth place in a race punctuated by no less than four safety car periods, during one of which
Massa went through a red light at the pit lane exit and was excluded from the race.
"we are very disappointed, because we lost important points," said Todt. "But we feel we were able to compete against all the others except the winner's team. For the second race in a row we have been beaten by a team more competitive than ours."
Todt rejected suggestions that
Ferrari had lost something in its managerial re-organisation over the winter, which had seen the departure of Ross Brawn and
Michael Schumacher's change of roles.
"I could understand the question if we hadn't scored any good results since the beginning of the season," Todt continued. "But you must see the facts, and I think that since the beginning of the season we had four pole positions out of six races, we've won three Grand Prix so I don't think you can say it's a disaster for Ferrari.
We are not happy about it but you see some other very strong teams who are there, who have not won any races, who did not set four pole positions."
As ever, Todt pointed out that, in spite of Ferrari being 28 points behind McLaren in the championship race, there is still a long way to go. "Eleven races, if we do a good job, it's just over two points per race, so Every time it's getting more difficult but there's no reason not to believe it."
And finally Todt paid tribute to Lewis Hamilton's remarkable performance in scoring his maiden win. "He's doing a great job with a great car and a great team and he's able to put everything together, but the season is not yet finished..."
Source Ferrari
