Ferrari will be playing a defense game at this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix because the car lacks the speed it needs to be competitive, team sources admitted on Friday.
In the two free practice sessions on Friday both Ferrari cars were far behind the competition with Kimi Raikkonen 11th in the morning and 14th in the afternoon, while Felipe Massa was 15th and 12th.
Ferrari's problems with speed are due to the fact that it does not have a double-decker rear diffuser, which the international racing federation FIA this week ruled was legal, and its power-boosting KERS device has been anything but reliable and has even been taken off for China.
KERS is an acronym for 'kinetic energy recovery system' and the device is designed to exploit energy produced from braking.
''Without KERS we lose a bit of performance and initial indications are that we are not seeing any improvement in the balance of a car which, let's not forget, was designed to carry this system,'' Team Principal Stefano Domenicali said after the two practice sessions.
''As for today's track activity, I'd say it turned out pretty much as we had expected. We will have to run a few races on the defensive and try and do the best we can,'' he added.
''We are in a difficult situation and we must try and stay calm and work hard on all fronts,'' Domenicali admitted.
''The problem is that we are too slow compared to the teams currently at the top of the order. We must improve the car because, as things stand now, we are not able to fight for the title,'' Raikkonen observed.
''But we will not give up the fight and the whole team is working hard to put us back into a winning position. It's not going to be easy but we know what needs to be done to get out of this situation,'' the Finn added.
Massa made no secret of the fact that ''our fight for the championship has never been more compromised. Running without KERS we are losing even more performance, in addition to not having as much aerodynamic downforce as the better cars have''.
''We know it will be very hard to catch up and the only recipe for getting out of this difficulty is to work hard,'' the Brazilian said.
The double decker diffuser which Ferrari, Renault and some other teams had disputed restore much of the downforce which 2009 rule changes had reduced, thus giving cars which use it extra speed.
Both races so far this season have been won by Jenson Button in a Brawn GP, which uses the double-decker diffuser.
On Friday, Button topped the afternoon time sheet and was second in the morning behind world champion Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren, which has already made aerodynamic changes following FIA's ruling this week.
The Brawn GP uses both a McLaren-Mercedes engine and KERS device and its second driver Rubens Barrichello was third in both sessions on Friday.
