Can Ferrari finish first behind Red Bull? 'Tribute to team performance'

Can Ferrari still beat Mercedes?

"As I said before, for us the important thing would have been to win. Obviously, we didn't succeed. Second is always better than third or fourth. This is what we are giving ourselves as a target. We'll try to do our best," said the Ferrari man.

"If we manage, it’ll be welcome because it's a good tribute to the team effort," Ioverno said. The Italian Scuderia also has a plan ready should they fail to finish second in the championship, Loverno explained. "If we don't manage, we'll keep on analysing why and try to move forward for the next team."

Ferrari's deficit with Mercedes is as much as 22 points. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz will therefore have to get 22 more points than George Russell and Lewis Hamilton combined in the remaining races. That will be quite a task, as Interlagos is a circuit that suits Mercedes' W14 well.

Ioverno on Leclerc's disqualification

Both Leclerc and Hamilton were surprised in America with a disqualification for the Grand Prix at COTA. "In Austin we were caught out," Ioverno said. "We have reviewed all that happened in that weekend, and we understood what we could have done differently. Obviously we are going to apply that because that feeling I hope we will not live anymore because it is really tough to be thrown out."

Finally, Ioverno reveals what the teams are discussing with the FIA: "I think there is still some merit in Parc Ferme rules. Probably we may relax some of them because there are other ways to control what we are doing. There is a budget limitation. I don't think we will get rid of Parc Ferme completely, but we are discussing this among us with FIA," the Italian concluded.