Ferrari: McLaren relationships fine

After a controversial Japanese Grand Prix, where Lewis Hamilton was penalized for pushing Kimi Raikkonen wide at the first corner before Felipe Massa got a drive-through penalty for colliding with Hamilton, tensions between Ferrari and McLaren are rising ahead of the final two races.

But Domenicali says his team will not let the situation sour what has become a good relationship off track with McLaren.

"No, not at all," he said. "When we are on the track, we are fighting as normal and, as it has to be, there are no changes.

"I remember that another person asked me the same question after Spa: what do you think about the relationship with McLaren and Ferrari after that? And I said no way, there's no changes and I confirm that to you after today, nothing else happened.

"When you're racing, you try to do whatever you can. We try to respect each other. Of course you may have accidents, whenever you touch, whenever you even try to fight. This is something different from the relationship that you have team by team."

Although McLaren and Hamilton say they are baffled about being handed a penalty for the first corner incident, Domenicali has a different perspective on what happened.

"From my perspective, Lewis was quite aggressive at the first corner," he said. "He was quite long on the brakes and unfortunately when you're quite long, the people that are outside are forced to go on the outside, and unfortunately we had our two cars that were exactly there.

"In fact the cars that were inside with no problems or traffic were able to go through with no problem."

Speaking about the Massa incident, Domenicali said: "I think that of course Felipe tried to take back his position, decided to be aggressive. He went on the kerbs, he unfortunately touched Lewis and the stewards made that decision."

With Massa now lying just five points behind Hamilton, Domenicali is well aware of how hard the team must push for the remainder of the season - and how big a threat BMW Sauber remain.

"The attitude is really as I've always said, don't give up, push, and work," he said. "It will be a very tough challenge between our team and McLaren, but don't forget, as I've said before, that BMW are there, and Kubica has done another step.

"I said at the beginning of the championship that the series would be between these three teams and in a way, the fact that three teams are there, with two drivers fighting more close, shows how our approach (must be) to stay concentrated.

"China is just a week ahead and it will be a very tense two races where I don't want to say only the technical side of the car, (because) the preparation, the strategy but above all the mental approach of the team, the engineers, of the drivers will make a difference. So it will be very challenging, very interesting I would say."