Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene does not believe the team can challenge Mercedes for the championship this year - even if Sebastian Vettel feels he is still in title hunt.
Despite a number of upgrades for almost every team on the grid at the Spanish Grand Prix, it was the Mercedes who dominated again as Nico Rosberg won from pole and championship leader Lewis Hamilton took second.
Vettel finished third to remain on the coat-tails of the leaders but the four-time world champion was some distance behind and never looked like adding to the one race victory he has to his name this year.
The German was asked after the race if he thought he was still in the battle for the championship and he replied: "Yes, I think I'm still in the fight. We are able to improve our car."
But Arrivabene gave a more damning prediction on Ferrari's hopes of winning this year and insisted his only interest is on catching the Mercedes.
"Fighting for the championship I think is a bit too much," he conceded.
"I didn't say (we would win) two races this year. To be honest, I said three races. I still believe that this is achievable but there is nothing in life that you can achieve without working hard and this is what we have to do.
"I don't really care about being on the podium. If you look at the situation that we had last year, now every race weekend we are on the podium. But what I care about is the gap."
Arrivabene, who replaced Marco Mattiacci in November, refused to blame any specific area for the speed deficit and said the team at Maranello will work had to close up on the Silver Arrows.
"I said at the beginning of the year that I don't want to point the finger on aerodynamics, engine and all of this," he added.
"Otherwise we are creating the usual mess where everybody is freaking out left, right, up and down. We need to calm down, look at the numbers and to take a decision. I promise you that if we are making a mistake we are going to tell you.
"We need to improve.the gap with Mercedes is there. Now we need to analyse all the data to understand why.
"What is clear, because we are not blind, is the fact that in the last sector we were losing half a second. I am not escaping from the reality, it is there. So we need to understand and find out how to improve the new package. But the new package is better than the old one.
"The numbers tell us that the new solutions are good, the reality shows that they are not good enough. We did make a step forward, but it was supposed to be a jump. I am not blaming anyone in particular, I am taking my own responsibilities. We need to work harder."
Everyone involved with Ferrari will be hoping that hard work begins paying off when they get to Monaco in under two weeks' time.
With Rosberg searching for a third straight win in the principality and world champion Hamilton wanted to get back onto the top step, both Vettel and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen - who finished fifth in Barcelona - know they will need to be at their best to keep pace with the Mercedes.
Source: PA
