Faced with the realisation that his team's car is a second off the pace and therefore unable to mount a realistic challenge, Ferrari technical director Aldo Costa has vowed that the team will leave no stone unturned in its quest to turn things around.

"We are not where we thought we were this winter, we lack performance," he told reporters in the wake of today's qualifying session that saw his team under pressure from Renault in the battle for 'best of the rest' behind Red Bull and McLaren.

While Ferrari came out of pre-season testing as one of the great favourites, its car having completed the most mileage - usually without any significant technical problems - and always at the right end of the timesheets, it is clear that the F150 Italia is not able to take on the RB7 or the MP4-26, not by a long way. Indeed, after yesterday's practice sessions Fernando Alonso was already clearly dejected and giving up hope of fighting for the win here.

"At the last Barcelona test, we introduced a big package of updates," said Costa. "Some of them worked as we had expected, while others, to do with the front end, were less effective and so we found ourselves with an unexpected performance deficit in Melbourne.

"But let's make this clear," he continued, "this version of the car is quicker than the one that made its debut in Valencia, but we have not improved to the extent we would have liked. How do we get out of this situation? If it was easy, we would have done it already, but we are not yet clear as to where the problem lies.

"We are working on it, but it's a case of a complete evaluation we are currently undertaking, not just here at the track but also in the factory. When we have understood the situation, that will mean we have already made a good step forward and then we will need to be even more aggressive in terms of development of the car, because there are two teams that have set the bar very high.

"At Maranello, we have a lot of talented people and they are very peed off with this situation," he added with refreshing honesty, "and I know that everyone is very keen to fight back.

"We are working on different areas. There will be something new in China, and something more significant in Turkey and for the rest of the season. Will it be enough? I don't know the answer to that now. Clearly we have to push harder than the others because we have to make up the ground we have lost, which today is greater than was the case last year. We have to change our approach in order to succeed.

The Italian also hinted that the agreement that limits testing is also affecting the team, as it uses Grand Prix Fridays for carrying out in-depth analysis of the car as well as general preparations for the remainder of the race weekend.

"The time we spent yesterday on aerodynamic testing came out of the time available to work out the right set-up on the car and on studying the behaviour of the tyres," he said. "However, between yesterday and today, we have made progress and I think that showed in qualifying and I hope that will also be the case tomorrow in the race. Clearly, I don't expect us to be as quick as the top four, but I am sure we will do our best."