Domenicali admits it is “crucial” that the team wins

Title-chasing Ferrari must get back in the winner’s circle before Formula 1’s three-week summer break at the start of next month, says its team boss Stefano Domenicali.

Since finishing 1-2 at the opening round of the season the Maranello outfit has claimed just three podium finishes in the subsequent eight grands prix.

This sequence of results has seen it fall adrift of McLaren and Red Bull in the championship standings and, on the eve of the season’s mid-point at Silverstone this weekend, Domenicali admits it is “crucial” that the team wins at least one of the grands prix in Britain, Germany and Hungary over the next four weeks if it is to remain a genuine title contender.

“I think that we do not have to hide behind something,” he said in a video preview on Ferrari’s website.

“For sure it will be very important.

“It will be crucial for the championships, for the motivation and I think that is really the key before the summer break to have this kind of result that I think our team deserves.”

After an abject performance in Turkey in late May – when the team was only the fifth fastest around Istanbul Park – Ferrari showed improved form in Canada and Valencia, although its chances of a strong result in the latter were scuppered by an untimely safety car.

Its bid to continue its recent resurgence will be boosted at Silverstone by new front and rear wings and, while Fernando Alonso has played down Ferrari’s hopes of triumphing at the historic track, Domenicali says the team goes there determined to make up for recent disappointments.

“As always after a difficult grand prix as we had in Valencia, the atmosphere that we have in Maranello is good and the will [is there] to go to this fantastic track and start a new racing weekend,” he said.

“We knew that unfortunately in the last two races we didn’t get the results we wanted. Unfortunately the performance was there, but the result was not there.

“So even if we know that traditionally Silverstone is not a track where we perform very well, we are really looking forward to going there and seeing what will be the outcome of it.”

Ferrari currently lies 83 points behind McLaren in the constructors’ standings, with lead driver Alonso 29 off Lewis Hamilton in the drivers’ chase.