Ferrari had one of the worst finishes to a season in over a decade this year when they finished up on the fourth rung of the constructors ladder. When the year got underway down under last March, Ferrari were one of the team’s disadvantaged in the widely publicised double diffuser row that many believed gave Brawn GP the early edge and eventual crown with Jenson Button winning the first six races of the season.

After the FIA deemed the controversial diffuser legal, other teams adopted the same set up, however Ferrari had difficulty integrating it successfully into their 2009 challenger, so instead they halted work on the F90 and concentrated on next year’s challenger instead, the same thing Honda did in 2008 when they realized that they would not be able to compete adequately enough.

"It was of course a difficult season, but you have to look at the situation this year and what happened. I think for sure on the technical side, the championship was in a way steered with the double diffuser situation at the beginning. That, for us, [meant] we had to work on the car without that kind of structure and it was difficult to catch up. We knew it, and this is the reason why – considering what we saw when we did the first step of development, we took the very difficult decision to say in the middle of July, look let's stop work on this car and work for next season,” Stefano Domenicali explained to Autosport.

"It was a very painful decision because we know in this contest, with a lot of emotion, you have to suffer and you have to think that you have done a rational decision. It is painful to pay this year, but let's hope it will be good for next year. If you look at the end of the championship, unfortunately we are fourth – one point behind McLaren who took the decision, which has to be totally respected, to develop the car up until the end.”

Just like Honda, now Brawn, came back with a winning car as a result, Ferrari believe their new car will be right back at the front where it has been for the past decade, mainly because there is now a clarity in the rules that was not there this season.

"The confidence comes from the fact that we don't see any loophole in the regulation that can be considered, I would say, legal. Now things are legal full stop. No discussions and we can look ahead always,” he added. "We also did the choice that Ross [Brawn] did with Honda two years ago, to concentrate all the efforts into the new project.”

“I think the reason we did something different to McLaren was because our car was structured so as to not to develop the double diffuser. It was blocked, and that is why we said we don't have to do work here, because it will not carry on next year. That is why, looking at the numbers we have in the wind tunnel, I am positive now. With my feet on the ground - but for sure positive."