Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne says it breaks his soul to see Ferrari struggling to fight for victories in Formula One.

Ferrari has failed to live up to its lofty expectations so far this season and arguably suffered its least competitive weekend of the year last time out in Russia. Sebastian Vettel qualified 0.706s off Nico Rosberg's pole position time in Sochi and was taken out at Turn 3 after starting from seventh due to a gearbox problem. Teammate Kimi Raikkonen finished third but was outqualified by a Williams on Saturday and finished the race 32 seconds off Rosberg, who slowed his pace towards the end due to an MGU-K issue.

"Yesterday was a bad day," Marchionne was quoted as saying by Gazzetta dello Sport on Monday. "There is still a lot of work to do, but I have every confidence in the team and we will succeed."

The comments came on the same day that Marchionne strengthened his position at the helm of Ferrari by being appointed CEO as well as chairman. He issued a warning to his team saying it must improve quickly in order to battle reigning champions Mercedes and bring back the glory years of Michael Schumacher's dominance in the early 2000s.

"We must close the gap at the speed of light. I am used to seeing the Ferrari of Schumacher, it breaks my soul to see Ferrari suffering so much."