As his team continues to lose ground to Red Bull and McLaren, Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo has expressed his confidence in the team to turn things around.

"I am definitely not satisfied with the way the season has begun, but I have complete faith in the people here who know how to react when the situation is tough," he said at the launch of the "Great Ferrari Story" DVD.

"I am sure there will be an amazing response," he continued. "I know everyone is working flat out and I have great faith in the human and technical strengths of our people. I believe the period when the most we can hope for is a podium will soon come to an end."

Looking ahead to this weekend's race in China, he said: "I hope we see some improvement, especially in qualifying and to see us be competitive as we were yesterday in the race. But I reckon that will be difficult as I don't think Ferrari can turn it around in the space of a week.

"I know from Domenicali, with whom I have just spoken, that everyone has got their heads down working hard. Yesterday in the race, I saw Ferrari at the same level as the best and barring a couple of incidents we were definitely heading for the podium. I also spoke at length with Alonso for get his impressions of the car and I could tell he was confident in how things went in the race, even if we have a lot of work to do to improve."