Ferrari has plenty of potential

One of the surprises in the opening round of the Formula One World championship in Australia was Ferrari.

After a solid winter testing programme, the lap times and the mileage completed by Ferrari, all pointed to a very competitive car and Ferrari's Alonso and Massa went to Australia as two of the pre-race favourites alongside Red Bull.

However Alonso went on to finish the race at Melbourne in fourth, behind Red Bull's Vettel, McLaren's Hamilton and Renault's Petrov, while team-mate Massa finished seventh and that was only because both Sauber drivers who initially finished ahead of him were eventually disqualified.

'We know we have to improve our performance level, but we are equally aware that in the end, the race result [in Australia] was not such a disaster,' Alonso told Ferrari's official website.

'We will have a few minor updates on the car, but nothing very significant, or the sort of thing you could say would be the key to take a leap forward in performance terms.

'I believe we must stay concentrated on our own work and try to understand how to get all the potential out of the 150° Italia and I'm sure there's plenty to come.

'Before we achieve that, it's pointless standing here making predictions about how the weekend will turn out. We just have to tackle it one day at a time.'

Alonso doesn't appear to come across as someone supremely confident that Ferrari will be battling with Red Bull and McLaren for a spot on the podium this weekend.

In fact it's a very different approach from the Spaniard who initially put Ferrari's unexpected poor performance in qualifying in Australia down to an off day and a poor getaway from the grid as the reason he didn't finish on the podium in the race.

Now he seems to have admitted to himself that the Ferrari is a little off the pace and he is now making a bid to lower the expectations that had been built up during winter testing.

Or of course he's bluffing.