Ferrari is confident that its all-new F10 design is a big step forward over last year's car, as it eyes a full-scale world championship assault this season.

The team's 2010 challenger was unveiled in Maranello on Thursday morning, with the Italian squad hoping that its early focus on the new car will see a return to form after the difficulties of last season.

Technical director Aldo Costa said: "We think this new car is a good step forward in aero development, car settings and also engine - and we are pretty much convinced we have taken a big step forward.

"We cannot know what our competitors have done, and only during the first race will we realise that. But it carries all our passion and the determination of a group that wants to forget what happened last year and go back to being competitive from the very first race."

Ferrari began work on the F10 as early as last spring, and by the summer its design staff were working wholly on the new car after abandoning development of the F2009.

Costa said that a lot of development work had been spent on optimising the double diffuser on the new car – having been forced to integrate as best as possible on last year's machine.

"As you know double diffusers were made legal during the previous season," he said. "It revolutionised and changed the design of the cars - and we had to start it from zero, from scratch.

"We have adopted the concept, and this is something that was not possible during the last championship when the car had already been designed.

"A big change has taken place - not a dramatic change like from 2008 to 2009, but the car is substantially different from the previous cars."

Ferrari plans a host of aerodynamic upgrades prior to the first race, and has pencilled in major aerodynamic and mechanical upgrades over the course of the year.

Chief designer Nikolas Tombazis added: "F10 is totally revised compared to the previous one.

"We are very much satisfied with the work we have done, although we are very aware of the fact that we will see on track if we have worked enough.

"It was good team work and all of the departments have worked hard. We are confident this car represents a step ahead and we look forward to seeing the first races."

Article by Dieter Rencken and Jonathan Noble

Latest News (18/02/10)

Ferrari engineers have begun work on their second F10 chassis at the third pre-season test of the year in Jerez after Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa clocked 700km in the car in a single day.

Both Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa completed a series of long runs during last week's four-day test at the southern Spanish circuit.

Having made so much progress, Ferrari announced they have started work on chassis 282 - the second of two F10 chassis - and have also introduced a number of small aerodynamic updates to the car, before incorporating a larger upgrade package onto the F10 at the final test of the year in Barcelona.

Speaking to reporters at the end of day four of testing in Jerez last week, after clocking up more then 700km in the car, Massa said he is confident that Ferrari are heading in the right direction.

"We've never driven 700 kilometres in just one day," said Massa.

"Physically I feel well, I actually thought that I might be more tired than I am.

"I'm pleased by the work we've done today, because we could test the car under all conditions.

"I'm happy for myself and the team: we concluded the foreseen programme and there is lots of data to analyse over the upcoming days, so we can prepare ourselves the best possible way for the next test session, without any particular problems."

Massa stopped just once on Saturday and, while Ferrari were reluctant to confirm the reason for the stoppage, it appears the team were testing the construction of the F10's fuel cell, to ensure every kilo of fuel is used by the car before cutting out.

"The only stop I had doesn't worry me at all, because we know what caused it.

"I think we're heading in the right direction, but we're aware of the fact that there's still lots of work ahead of us."

Meanwhile, Lotus Racing made its group test debut in Jerez on Wednesday, pitching up alongside ten other teams, including fellow newcomers Virgin Racing, whose progress was slowed last week because of heavy rain and a front-wing failure.

Lotus' Cosworth-powered T127 will be driven by both Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen over the next four days, however, with rain forecast, the team's testing schedule may be disrupted somewhat