Ferrari delayed developments on 2016 F1 car for their 2015 charge

Ferrari were the only team which gave Mercedes some sort of competition in the 2015 season and recent reports suggest that they delayed work on their 2016 Formula one (F1) car to fully concentrate on the developments on their race-winning SF15-T.

Ferrari had a disastrous 2014 campaign where they garnered zero wins. They bounced back in 2015 and closed the gap with the leader Mercedes and finished second in the F1 constructors’ championship. Sebastian Vettel won three races for the team.

Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne has stated that he is not worried with the delay and has complete confidence that his team will be challenging for the championship alongside Mercedes next season.

"Maurizio [Arrivabene, team principal] will tell you we delayed some things to allow for the 2015 car to be finished," Marchionne said to Autosport.com."Hopefully he will not bitch about this. We pushed the start of some of the work on the '16 cars on the chassis, delayed it a bit. So I'm confident we will give Mercedes a run for their money.”

Although Ferrari were not able to launch a serious title challenge to Mercedes in 2015, their late surge in the campaign proved to be vital in their developments heading into the next season. There will be interest in the racing world to notice how much they have progressed.

Former World Champion Niki Lauda stated at the end of the 2015 campaign that both Ferrari and Mercedes were equal on engine power.

Marchionne wants Ferrari to be the team to beat in 2016. He wants to lead the pack starting from the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park on March 15, 2016.

Arrivabene kept expectations under wraps in 2015 by stating that the team was looking for two wins from the season has shared his president’s huge ambition for the upcoming season.

"Marchionne is the president, so he must set goals. There is nothing wrong with that. What I do and what other people at Ferrari do -- which perhaps receives less media coverage -- is geared towards meeting these targets. There is nothing wrong with them. It is quite the contrary." Arrivabene said to ESPN.