[5] The car, which was driven by Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, made its debut at the first pre-season test at Jerez.

[10] Felipe Massa reported that the team needed to carry out substantial work in order to understand the car.

[11] Ferrari denied that the car was under-performing, but during the Australian Grand Prix both Alonso and Massa went off the track after struggling with the handling, and could only qualify 12th and 16th respectively.

Alonso finished the race in fifth, while Massa retired after a collision with Williams driver Bruno Senna.

In the week before the Malaysian Grand Prix, Ferrari took the extraordinary step of preparing a brand-new chassis for Massa.

In the race, extreme weather conditions led to Alonso taking the lead after the first round of pit stops.

In China, the F2012 had a similar gap to the fastest cars, Alonso qualifying ninth and Massa twelfth.

In Bahrain, which did not suit the F2012 at all, Massa qualified 14th, and Alonso ninth, having not set a time in Q3 in order to preserve tyres for the race.

Massa was running in the top ten in the early stages of the race, before incurring a drive through penalty following speeding under yellow flag conditions, caused by Schumacher crashing with Senna.

The championship standings after this race shows that Ferrari are in fourth place behind Lotus, and Alonso has regained the championship lead, 3 points ahead of both Red Bull Drivers and a further 10 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton in fourth.

Vettel was leading the championship by 13 points, but when he was spun around and ended up in last position at the start of the race, title hopes were high for Alonso.

However, Vettel recovered to sixth by the end of the race, and Alonso's second-place finish meant he missed out on the title by 3 points.