Despite a win in Malaysia and another strong showing today in Shanghai, James Allison prefers to maintain Ferrari's original objectives.

Not that long ago, many were ridiculing Maurizio Arrivabene’s target of two wins for the Scuderia this season; be it for the perceived lack of ambition or downright wishful thinking. However, in the wake of Sebastian Vettel's win in Malaysia, not to mention a clear improvement on 2014, some are now not only tipping the Maranello outfit for many more wins this season but even a serious stab at the title.

Technical director James Allison however prefers to take a more realistic approach.

"I think that we're up against a car, in Mercedes, and others too, that are strong competition," he said in Shanghai following a second practice session in which Kimi Raikkonen, in particular, gave the Mercedes duo a run for their money. "But Mercedes in particular, they have a bit more horsepower than us and a bit more downforce than us and until we've closed those two gaps it's not realistic to talk about title challenges.

"Our objectives were set out at the beginning of the year," he continued, "we thought it was realistic to score a couple of wins and of course we'll take whatever comes our way and we'll do our best to make our car close up as much as we can and who knows what after that during the course of the year, but I think that sticking with the objectives we stated at the beginning of this year is still realistic."

Asked if the Sepang win validates the engineering route he has taken, he said: "I think the main thing it does… well, it makes everybody happy of course, but the main effect it does have is boosting everyone's confidence. The team has had a difficult period over the past couple of years and to score a win was tremendously enjoyable and helps pump everyone up and makes it easier to work the hours that they need to work before we can close up and be properly competitive in every race.

"The stopwatch always tells you what you need to know engineering-wise," he added, "and of course to finish at the front in a race is a great thing but it doesn't tell you much about what's going to happen in the future."

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