Ferrari admits F-duct has slowed progress

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali has admitted that pursuing development of the F10's F-duct may have compromised the car's overall development.

Many teams have struggled to copy McLaren's drag-reducing F-duct system and successfully integrate it in their homologated chassis. Ferrari has turned up at the last few races with new iterations of its design but the car has steadily dropped off the pace. Domenicali has now conceded that it was pursued at the cost of other developments.

"We put a lot of energy into developing our F-duct and that may have delayed slightly other areas," he the French language Canadian newspaper La Presse.

However, he made clear that the team is not downbeat about its recent run of poor results.

"That would be no use when there are still two thirds of the season yet ahead," he added. "Many things can change from race to race and we are certainly not lowering our heads and becoming downcast - that is for those who do not reach their goals, and that is certainly not the case with Ferrari."

"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. 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."

On Thursday, the test driver Giancarlo Fisichella conducted an aerodynamic test at Vairano, with the specific package to be raced at Montreal's unique Circuit Gille Villeneuve this weekend. However, the next major upgrade is not due until the following Valencia round, with the the team confirming that in Canada the car will be in essentially "the same specification" as it was in Turkey two weeks ago

Ferrari admits F-duct has slowed progress | Ferrari | Formula 1 news, live F1 | ESPN F1

McLaren's Jenson Button is baffled by Ferrari's drop in performance since the start of the season but is not writing it off yet.

Fernando Alonso won the opening race in Bahrain but, among mistakes and reliability problems, the F10 appears to have dropped off the pace. At the last round in Turkey, Alonso failed to qualify in the top ten and the Ferraris went on to finish way off the pace in seventh and eighth.

Button said he was surprised by Ferrari's recent performances, but said he was not ruling it out of the running just yet.

"It's quite unusual," he told Toronto's The Star. "They had the perfect winter. They were very quick, very consistent and very reliable [in testing] and we were thinking, 'Wow, those guys are going to be untouchable.' At the first race, they were very fast. But we've made steady progress and at the moment we are faster and doing a better job than Ferrari. But they can come back. They're a very strong team, Fernando and Felipe [Massa] have the experience. You can't ever count them out. We never forget them."

However, at this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix he is expecting the main competition to be between his McLaren team and Red Bull.

"There are no high

Jenson Button not writing off Ferrari | McLaren | Formula 1 news, live F1 | ESPN F1