Domenicali: 2008 title fight cost us

With last season's main rivals McLaren also suffering from having been unable to make an early switch of development to its 2009 machine, Domenicali believes his outfit is simply playing catch-up.

Speaking to the BBC prior to a disastrous qualifying session for the Malaysian Grand Prix, where Felipe Massa was eliminated in Q1, Domenicali said: "We saw that some cars seem to have a great package. Some teams have had more time to develop the car, so this is a logical situation at the moment.

"We were fighting with McLaren until the end [in 2008] and we were fully concentrated on the fact that we wanted to win the title. In that respect each of us won a title. For sure that reflects the situation, the resources are limited. You cannot have everything, so we did a lot of work on the 2008 design and this is normal at the moment.

"The only way is up and this is the only way you have to do it. Work, stay calm and concentrated, no more than that."

Domenicali thinks it obvious that teams like Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams, who started work on their 2009 machines so early, are ahead especially since he believes they are gaining an advantage from their different interpretation of the diffuser regulations.

"Take away for one second the double-diffuser story, which has for sure a benefit for the cars that are using it, as [we will] see what is going to happen," he said.

"For me it is very clear that the teams that had the most time to develop the project have an advantage now, so the gap is very small. I think this is the starting point."

He added: "At this moment we need to concentrate on ourselves, we need to get the maximum performance out of what we can. We see that it is very tight.

"We have to be very honest. We are fighting at this moment not with the Brawn GP. We see the Red Bull car is very, very competitive, the Toyota is competitive, the BMW is competitive. That is the field we are facing now. We need to be realistic; this is the situation we are facing today."