Far from keeping Mercedes honest, Ferrari is now in serious danger of losing out to Red Bull, a situation that will not be helped by the fact that the next couple of tracks will suit the RB12.

Such is the situation, the Italian media is claiming Ferrari is in "crisis", fearing the worst is yet to come.

While La Repubblica described Ferrari's British Grand Prix performance ass being as "grey as the Silverstone sky", Gazzetta dello Sport has questioned the personnel changes, particularly the firing of Nicholas Tombazis.

Be it a stubbornnes to acceopt the truth, a genuine beleif that this is just a bad patch or pure lack of experience at this leavel, team boss Maurizio Arrivabene insists things will improve.

"At this stage of the season if you want to say we give up, it's not absolutely correct," said the Italian, according to Motorsport.com.

"We need to be focussed," he added. "In terms of problems, bad luck, and everything, we are already at the top in terms of points. I hope that these kind of points will go down and we'll start to get better. But saying we give up, not at all.

"The fact that Red Bull is performing very well is good for F1, it's good for competition, for the show," he continued. "But I still think that our target is Mercedes, and not Red Bull."

Whatever one's view of Arrivabene's use of the word 'luck', the facts speak for themselves, and it will take more than four leaf clovers, rabbits feet, (prancing) horse shoes or black cats to put ther Maranello outfit in a title-chalenging position at present.