Ferrari presented a new-look 2009 Formula One car on Monday with team boss Stefano Domenicali recognising that new regulations would make it harder for the Italian team to defend their title. Formula One has to contend with major changes this year, including slick tyres and revised aerodynamics designed to make overtaking easier. There are also cost-cutting measures, such as a ban on testing during the season, due to the global financial crisis.
The prospect of Ferrari pulling out of Formula One at the end of the year receded on Friday when the champions joined all the other teams in signing up conditionally for 2010.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc qualified fourth with Mexican Sergio Perez, Verstappen's closest title rival and team mate but a massive 151 points adrift after 15 of 22 rounds, fifth and 0.773 off his team mate's pace.
Alonso, who will make his McLaren debut after winning the Formula One championship for the past two years with Renault, had to make do with second place on the starting grid.
The 27-year-old Finn had his first Formula One test for the Italian glamour team at a damp Vallelunga circuit on Tuesday.
Ferrari must resolve their baffling loss of pace before Felipe Massa fights Lewis Hamilton for the Formula One title in Brazil next week, team boss Stefano Domenicali has said.
Ferrari will run separate design teams to simultaneously develop next year's Formula One car and the one for 2014, when the technical rules are due to change substantially.
Ferrari's Michael Schumacher says his victory in last month's San Marino Grand Prix was no flash in the pan.
Ferrari will be looking for answers in Formula One testing this week after champions Mercedes were more dominant than ever in Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix.
Ferrari, expecting rain, sent Vettel and team mate Kimi Raikkonen out on the intermediate tyres at the start of the final shootout phase of qualifying.
An injunction sought by Ferrari to prevent Formula One's governing body from introducing a budget cap next season will be decided on Wednesday, a French court said. Champions Ferrari went to the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris to try and stop the International Automobile Federation (FIA) from pressing ahead with the optional 40 million pound cap.
US media group News Corp and Italian financial holding Exor, which controls Ferrari through carmaker Fiat, are teaming up to explore options on how to run Formula One motor racing.
Formula One champions Mercedes can rack up their eighth successive victory on Sunday but even if they do, a winning streak must end for either Lewis Hamilton or Nico Rosberg in Bahrain. Rosberg is chasing his fifth win in a row after starting the season triumphantly in Australia to follow the three victories he racked up at the end of 2015. Hamilton, the triple world champion who finds himself behind his German team mate in the standings for the first time since 2014, is on for a hat-trick after winning in Bahrain for the past two years. The Briton is the favourite at a circuit that has yet to witness a Rosberg victory but Ferrari, who roared into the lead at the start in Melbourne with Sebastian Vettel followed by Kimi Raikkonen, also fancy their chances.
Formula One champions Red Bull have changed their pitstop procedures for Sunday's showcase Monaco Grand Prix after accusing Ferrari of shadowing them at the last race in Spain.
Ferrari unveiled their new Formula One car on Sunday with former champion Michael Schumacher unable to keep away and taking a sneak preview in the workshop.
He won a high-profile privacy case against the News of the World newspaper in 2008 after it said he had taken part in a "sick Nazi orgy".
Quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel will replace Fernando Alonso at Ferrari next season after signing a three-year deal, the Italian team said on Thursday.
Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn said they contacted FIA after receiving photographic evidence at the Hungarian Grand Prix.\n\n\n\n
Michael Schumacher will come out of retirement to test Ferrari's 2007 title-winning car in Barcelona next week.
In addition, TCS solutions will also be part of the racing car's popular cousin, the Ferrari sports car.
Sebastian Vettel recognised that he and Ferrari have made mistakes this season but refused to single out the moment where his hopes of winning a fifth Formula One title ended.
Kimi Raikkonen stole the limelight from Ferrari giant Fernando Alonso. The Finn essayed an epic victory at the Australia Grand Prix.
Ferrari will not stand in Michael Schumacher's way if the seven-times Formula One world champion decides to come out of retirement and race for Mercedes, president Luca di Montezemolo said on Monday.
Ferrari Formula One driver Fernando Alonso has said that he does not care if he wins the drivers' crown in the courtroom rather than on the track.
Brazilian Felipe Massa announced on Tuesday he is leaving Ferrari at the end of the season, opening the door for Kimi Raikkonen to return to the Formula One team that took him to the title in 2007.
Double world champion Max Verstappen ran away with a Saturday sprint race in a Red Bull one-two at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Ferrari gave Italians the bad news with a warning that their new Formula One car was unlikely to be a winner, or even in the podium places, when the season starts in Australia in two weeks' time.
Formula One's Australian season-opener lacked a vital ingredient, overtaking, and it will take years to fix the problem, managing director for motorsports Ross Brawn said on Monday.
Ferrari's times were eye-catching, and quicker than anything from last year's weather-affected first four-day test at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Force India ruled Frenchman Jules Bianchi out of the reckoning for the last remaining race seat in Formula One on Wednesday, leaving the way open for Germany's Adrian Sutil to make a comeback.
Michael Schumacher has not ruled out standing in for injured Ferrari Formula One driver Felipe Massa although a comeback is highly unlikely, the retired champion's spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
The German, winner of the season's first two races, had been second before coming in for a fresh set of tyres while Hamilton won with one stop from pole position.
Ferrari's Formula One world championship leader Sebastian Vettel was handed a five-second penalty for colliding with the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas on the opening lap of the French Grand Prix on Sunday.
"It would be a lack of respect to stop now and say okay, I don't care any more what's happening to Ferrari," said the Brazilian driver
Charles Leclerc put Ferrari on pole position for Sunday's US Grand Prix after Red Bull's triple Formula One world champion Max Verstappen had a faster lap deleted for exceeding track limits and dropped to sixth on the grid.
Race stewards ruled that Rubens Barrichello was released from his pitstop by Ferrari when it was not safe to do so.
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