Ferrari's president, Luca Di Montezemolo, has blamed badly-written rules, last season's title tilt and a degree of a complacency within his team for their miserable start to the formula one world championship season.
Ferrari began today's Bahrain grand prix without a point after the opening three races, for the first time since 1981. With Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen eighth and 10th on the grid, there was a real danger of the Italian team making it four pointless races in a row at the start of a season for the first time in their illustrious history.
Di Montezemolo's main complaint surrounds this season's new regulations, notably the diffuser technology that has been the source of such contention.
"I want to understand why we are in the middle of a black tunnel, and there are three reasons," said Di Montezemolo, who was attending his first race since last year's Italian grand prix in an attempt to raise team morale. "Number one is the very badly written rules, what I call grey rules, which has led to different interpretations. If teams who have won the last few championships – Renault, Ferrari and McLaren – and then another very important team in BMW, as well as Red Bull, have done one interpretation, it means the rules are not so clear.
"Very unclear rules means different interpretations, means polemics, means different cars on the grid. We have KERS, which is meant to have a link between formula one and road cars in terms of saving energy, being green, innovation. We have done KERS, which has meant a lot of money, a problem with safety, reliability, and gives you a completely different car, as many teams have done.
"Right now we are facing a strange, far from positive situation as we have three different formula one cars on the grid. We have cars with KERS, cars with no KERS and a different floor, and cars with KERS and no floor, which I think is bad. It's one of the reasons why we are not competitive and we are forced to invest time and extra money when we are in difficulty to make extra modifications to our car.
"Another reason is that we started to work on this car late, which is a pity because it came in a year when all the rules are new. And the last reason is presumption. Sometimes when you win so much you think you are the best, that staying at the top is easy. I want a different attitude."
Di Montezemolo believes Ferrari will reclaim their place at the head of formula one, following a decade at the top.
"When I know the reason [for problems] I am confident, and when I don't know the reason I am worried," he said. "I know the reason, my people know the reason, and they are fully committed, so I am very confident.
"But then I am very upset for other reasons that are nothing to do with the team. Totally unhappy. But I have confidence in our team we will get back to where we were soon. Not immediately, but soon."