Luca Badoer is confident he will improve his performance at next weekend's Belgian Grand Prix after struggling in Valencia.
"They have been very hard days," admits Massa's stand-in
Ferrari's Luca Badoer is confident he will improve his performance at next weekend's Belgian Grand Prix after struggling in his first race standing in for Felipe Massa in Valencia.
The Italian, promoted from his role as the Scuderia's test driver to replace the injured Brazilian, endured a character-building weekend at the European Grand Prix.
Friday's practice sessions saw Badoer fined a total of €5,400 and also pick up a reprimand for breaking the pit lane speed limit four times.
He then finished 20th and last in qualifying at the street circuit, Badoer's lap being 1.5 seconds off the pace of the next slowest car.
The race did not go much better for the 38-year-old, even though he made full use of his car's KERS system to pass six cars at the start.
Badoer soon started moving backwards once more, however, and was further hindered by both a spin and a drive-through penalty for crossing the pit exit line.
He eventually finished 17th and last of the drivers on track, a result in marked contrast to team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who finished third.
"They have been very hard days, but this was the expectation for me," said Badoer, who has not driven an F1 car in anger for over half a year due to the in-season testing ban, and who last contested a grand prix in 1999.
"It was a tough race. Formula One is very different from 10 years ago. It's tougher in terms of the pressure to not make any mistakes.
"The priority was to finish the race so that we can have more luck and confidence with the car."
Faith
Despite his apparent haplessness during the weekend, Ferrari bosses appear supportive of their loyal employee.
And Badoer is determined to repay that faith with an improved showing at Spa-Francorchamps - unlike Valencia, a track he has raced on before.
"This weekend I improved a lot, and in Spa I think I will be much better," he said. "I don't know how much better - we will see. But for sure I will have a better feeling with the car, with the team, with the track, with everything.
"It will be much better, I promise you."
Raikkonen, meanwhile, was in upbeat mood after scoring his second successive podium finish.
"I am happy about this result," he said. "On Friday we saw that the car was pretty competitive over a distance and we therefore thought we could fight for a podium finish.
"Now we go to Spa, a track that I like a lot. At this point in the season, if we manage to get everything right, then we can aim for a podium and if anything was to happen to those ahead of us, we can try and do even better."
