After just two races Ferrari is already fifty points adrift of Mercedes, with Red Bull just three behind. And whilst the SF16-H has undoubted pace, it is its reliability that is giving cause for concern.

Though Sebastian Vettel's failure to make the grid in Bahrain, and Kimi Raikkonen's retirement in Australia, looked, to all intents and purposes, to be due to engine issues, the team refuses to shed further light.

Nonetheless, Vettel remains confident.

“I've said many times that this car allows us to 'play' more than last year's car," he told reporters in Shanghai. "I believe the potential is there, it is only a question of getting all the ingredients together.

"It's no big secret that this year we didn't have the start to the season that we had hoped for," he admitted, "but on the other hand, I see no reason to panic. It is still very early in the season and the two failures we had, with Kimi in Australia and with myself in Bahrain, are related to two completely different reasons.

"In the case of my car, we have understood that a small electronic bug caused a big problem. So we had to change the engine for this race, but I am not overly concerned, since we have found the reason for the failure. I am confident that we can still take the fight to the Mercedes this year."

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