Ferrari prepares to fight back

"Undoubtedly, the balance of power in the last four races between ourselves and the BMW Williams/Michelin package has shifted in their favour," said the Frenchman. "Both championships are now wide open. There are four drivers within 17 points and three teams covered by 18, with six races remaining."

If the European Grand Prix delivered something of a wake up call to the Italian team, the French Grand Prix drove it home - despite both Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello still being in points scoring form.

"We will put all our efforts into improving the situation," said Todt. "Michael managed to limit the damage in the drivers' championship with his third place finish in France, while Rubens' two points helped us to maintain the lead in the constructors."

Schumacher himself remains characteristically cool over the current state of affairs: "We know we are a bit behind the Williams but we feel confident that we can change it around," he said.

"I gained another point in the championship lead to Kimi and in Formula 1 we have often seen such phases where we were behind and suddenly minor things make the thing turn."

Famed for its intensive testing programmes, running in several different locations at the same time, Ferrari will nonetheless be redoubling its efforts this week to catch the runaway Williams cars'.

"Now we are about to tackle a week of testing, the last before the summer break, and it will be very important," said Todt. "We will be in action at Mugello, Barcelona and Fiorano, working with Bridgestone on the entire package."

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