Fernando Alonso breaks silence on Domenicali exit but no word yet on Mattiacci

Fernando Alonso has admitted there will be no quick fix for Ferrari in the wake of Stefano Domenicali's departure and warned F1's most famous marque are likely to remain uncompetitive until at least the second half of the 2014 campaign.

Raikkonen added: "He has great people around him and for sure he wants people to help him so I don't see there will be any issues. I'm sure he will be very good at what he does and does everything in his power to push us forward. But obviously he won't change things suddenly or make miracles because we know where we are and we know what we have to improve. It doesn't change overnight." As Alonso crossed the line in Bahrain two weeks ago in a distant ninth, the Spaniard was seen to raise his arm in an apparent 'victory salute'. The gesture has, in some quarters, been interpreted as a sarcastic denouncement of the team's current position in the pecking order, but Alonso is adamant that there was nothing untoward in his signal. "I was saying thanks to the mechanics," Fernando explained during Thursday's press conference. "They had been working hard after a problem on the engine unit. We didn't have a solution for the problem even at twelve o'clock on Sunday and then in the race we had everything in the place. They did a fantastic job - and when they were on the pitwall saying 'hello', I said 'hello' too."