Whilst Lotus appears to blame the media for everything that's wrong with the sport, Ferrari has good reason to fear the press.

An Italian media that demands success from its 'national' team applies enormous, continued pressure on the Maranello outfit.

Indeed, in the wake of last year's comings and goings, which saw numerous changes of team boss and the departure of company chairman Luca di Montezemolo, the Italian media will feel particularly emboldened.

Consequently, as the gap to Mercedes continues to tantalise, and with Williams seemingly on the rise again, and no real sense of Sebastian Vettel building on his Sepang win, far less mounting a title bid, a fall guy is needed.

Consequently, sections of the media, claiming that technical director James Allison's contract runs out this year, are speculating that the Englishman will not be retained.

However, talking to Autosprint, Allison dismisses the speculation insisting that his contract has several more years to run.

"I have a contract that binds me to Ferrari for several years," he said. "I came back to Ferrari to repeat the experience of winning, because it is an unique feeling. I experienced it as a young engineer, and it was amazing to win five world championships.

"The prospect of being able to relive those moments in the role that I now occupy is something that I really wanted to do. I want to stay here until I finish my work and if Ferrari feels the same I will be very happy."

Allison, who was aerodynamicist responsible for track operations with Ferrari between 2000 and 2005, the Scuderia's glory years, is confident that as the season progresses the team will make progress.

"In the first part of the season the updates came faster than the competition and we were able to reduce the gap," he said. "However, we saw that the Mercedes teams took a huge leap forward in Montreal, and the gap widened again. But if I had to bet on what will happen in the second half of the season, I think we will return to reducing the gap to Mercedes and staying ahead of Williams.

"We are a team with very good drivers and a significant budget, we have no excuses," he continued. "We have to fight for victory.

"When it does not work it is a disappointment for everyone," he admitted. "Those who work for Ferrari know that if you don't win it is very likely that there will be problems. At Maranello everyone knows that when you decide to work for Ferrari, you take the responsibility of having to build a winning car. And I think that will always be so."