Ferrari plan bold changes to car

The opening three rounds of the 2011 Formula One World championship have not been good for Ferrari.

Their pre-season winter testing campaign promised so much but eventually delivered little, Ferrari headed to Australia firmly believing that they would be on a par with Red Bull, competing for the win in Melbourne, instead they were a long way off the pace and were also behind McLaren and Renault.

In Malaysia Ferrari were once again not in competition with Red Bull or McLaren, settling instead for positions outside of the podium places.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has piled on the pressure, demanding better performance from the team.

Ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, team principal Stefano Domenicali, technical director Aldo Costa and assistant Pat Fry all changed their travel arrangements, returning back to Italy rather than flying straight to Shanghai.

Ferrari had hoped to find a way of improving the car ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, which would appeased di Montezemolo, they failed.

“We are going through a difficult period and there is no point denying that our start to the season was a disappointing one,” Ferrari's chief designer Nikolas Tombazis said to formula1.com.

Now Ferrari are set to try some radical changes to the car in a almost desperate bid to close the gap to Red Bull and McLaren.

Following an intense design period Ferrari will have new brake ducts and newly designed front and rear wings.

These changes have come about following new wind tunnel testing.

'I can't say if this step forward will be enough, but I expect to see the consequences of this change in approach in the next few races. Tombazis told the BBC.

'The program is to bring improvements at every race. We are well aware these improvements will have to be courageous to close the gap.'

Ferrari see the next month as a critical period for the team. Following the Turkish Grand Prix, the Formula One circus has a two-week break before before back-to-back races at Barcelona and Monaco.

If these alterations do not bring immediate success, Ferrari could be too far behind Red Bull and McLaren after Monaco to have a real impact on the fight for the championship.