Domenicali warns Ferrari cannot rely on Vettel hitting trouble

Fernando Alonso cut Vettel's advantage to 10-points in Abu Dhabi, thanks to the Red Bull driver being excluded from qualifying.

But Domenicali insists his team must do all it can to lift the performance of its car, after a range of updates brought to Abu Dhabi did not bring the step forward that Ferrari had hopes for.

"This will be an important week to do the analysis of what we have done," explained Domenicali. "But we cannot rely on anything [happening to Vettel] to be honest.

"I want to take your attention on what McLaren did here. The last two races it seems McLaren were nowhere, and with no updates they did a fantastic performance here.

"So it has to be our target to improve the car, and this is what our engineers should do until the last possible moment.

"We need to consider the conditions and we need to be perfect. Then, if it is not enough we will see. But that is the approach that we need to take."

Domenicali added that everyone at Ferrari must still be positive about what can be achieved, despite Vettel's recovery on Sunday.

"To believe or not believe doesn't matter," he said. "Our approach is to believe in always being positive.

"If being negative would help then I would cry all day long, but because it doesn't help I will never cry.

"I will try to push the people and the team in the right way, because this is something we have to do.

"We are trying to do the maximum we can do and then, at the end, we will do the calculation.

"It is normal that we have to believe because if there is someone who does not believe then I think it is better to go with another team.

"That is not the approach I want to see in our group."