The Italian outfit had come in to the campaign targeting wins from the first race, but so far in 2016 it has seen Mercedes and Red Bull monopolise the top step of the podium between them.

However, in an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com, Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene says that the SF-16H is better than shown so far – and once the team has found the sweet spot with the set-up things will be different.

“Our 2016 car is a big step forward, the daughter of a completely new design,” said Arrivabene. “But it is also a very sensitive car, and difficult to set up, which has yet to give so much.

“I am sure that with the work we are doing we will demonstrate its full potential. It’s a thoroughbred: difficult to tame, which is yet to reach out. But with some small things it can be there 100 percent.”

When asked, in light of the failure to win so far, if he would be happy to accept, in exchange for not winning the title, as many wins as Ferrari took in 2015, he said: “No, absolutely not.

"I know the potential that we have, and of course I know the great job that is being done by Mercedes.

“At some tracks that gap has begun to get smaller, but we have to raise the bar with our ambitions and begin to look over it.

"If I answered your question with a yes, I would not represent the spirit that is in Ferrari and the DNA of its people.”

No 2017 shift

Arrivabene’s conviction that the 2016 car can challenge Mercedes has left him seeing no reason to start considering shifting all his team’s efforts to next season.

“After eight races I think it is wrong to think of the next year, leaving aside the present,” he said. “We are approaching the Mercedes, and we must not miss the chance offered in this world championship.”

Ferrari technical director James Allison said earlier this week that Ferrari had a ‘duty’ to keep fighting this year.

“We have a duty and an imperative to win in every year, and so we have to deploy our resources that makes sure that we are giving the most effective challenge we can in this racing year and make sure that we have our best chance next year,” he said at the FIA Sport Conference in Turin.

“That is a very difficult nut to crack but it is one we intend to do.”