Domenicali expecting quick reaction to Ferrari's slow start to 2012

Although Fernando Alonso arrived in last weekend's Chinese Grand Prix as championship leader following his win in Malaysia, the team struggled for pace in Shanghai, with the Spaniard finishing in ninth position and team-mate Felipe Massa down in 13th.

Ferrari is expecting another difficult weekend in Bahrain as the circuit will highlight the problems the car has at the moment.

Domenicali made it clear he is not happy with the current situation, and expects his technical team to react quickly to make the car stronger.

"It's clear I'm absolutely not happy with the way it was born, that's a fact," said Domenicali, "because it's easy to manage things with a quick car.

"So I expect to see a quick reaction on this aspect from our technicians, because we need to give our drivers a car that is a lot more competitive."

The team boss insisted he is staying calm about the situation despite the team being nearly a second off the pace.

"I'm calm by nature, because being otherwise is useless. This is my approach, especially when things get harder you need to be calm and serene. It's clear I expect a reaction from a technical point of view, because our team's objective is to give our drivers a more competitive car.

"The fact that no one is dominating is highlighted by the points table, but from a performance point of view we've seen different situations in the first three grands prix.

"It's a fact that we were never up there, so that means there's some way to go, and I repeat: on this aspect I don't think that our technicians have become completely... I won't say the word but you know what I mean... so I expect a quick reaction from them."

Domenicali also defended Alonso's three-stop strategy in China, despite it meaning the Spaniard was stuck in traffic most of the race.

"As far as strategies are concerned you just need to look at final results: three stops, two stops, they have all finished close to one another, so it's clear that with these conditions one or two laps make a difference, as can situations that happen during the race, since they all have arrived one behind the other.

"From an initial analysis, I'd say under this aspect this is certainly not today's problem. So, by starting too far back today it's clear that you need to manage traffic, that's the truth, just like everyone else had to manage it. I was re-watching it now, you just need to look at the car procession and you understand it."