Domenicali admits 2012 is now Ferrari's priority

Ferrari appear to be looking ahead to battling for the 2012 championship already © Getty Images

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After a slow start to the 2011 season, Ferrari's championship challenge has come alive in the past four races - yet they are already planning ahead for 2012 and are unlikely to focus on this year's challenge for too much longer.

Team principal Stefano Domenicali told theTelegraph that his immediate priority for 2012 was to ensure Ferrari avoided the slow start to the season that has hindered Fernando Alonso's title bids for the past two years.

To emphasise this he admitted that development on this year's car was likely to grind to a halt in the near future.

"Our target at the moment is really to stop in September and move to the new project," he said.

"And OK, if you have to do some fine-tuning you can do it, but otherwise you will lose a lot of time on development of the new car. The more time we can spend on the wind tunnel the better. Because for sure what I really want to avoid is another difficult winter like the last two years," he added.

It is certainly noticeable that in recent years Ferrari have taken a while to get into gear before setting the pace. In 2010 an opening race win for Alonso was followed by a bleak spell before four wins in seven races late on almost won him his third title.

Domenicali added: "Last year for instance we had a fantastic second half of the season - incredible - and could have won the world championship. But this year we did not start so well. So this year our priority is to have a much better winter."

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