Scuderia Ferrari yet to switch focus completely

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa drives during the Hungarian Formula One Grand Prix

Felipe Massa says Ferrari already have a separate team working exclusively on their 2014 car, but he admits they are yet to decide whether or not to abandon development on this year’s model.

With Formula One switching to the 1.6-litre turbocharged V6 engines next year, a lot of teams are being forced to pump extra resources into next year’s challengers.

Quite a few squads have already switched their entire focus to 2014s cars, but Ferrari are in a difficult position as Fernando Alonso is still very much in the hunt for the title as he is just 39 points behind pacesetter Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull.

Massa, who is seventh in the standings, says the team will give the 2013 car a few more races to see if they should shift their focus completely to next year’s model.

“We are already thinking about next season. It is very important because a lot of things are changing and we already have a whole team that only works on next year’s car for quite some time,” he told totalrace.com.

He added: “But we must watch the performance in the next races to determine if we should continue developing the car this year or fully focus on 2014.”