Ferrari have admitted for the first time they are far from happy with the performance of the car and are now up against the clock to correct issues before the season-opening race in Australia.

When the F2012 was unveiled a fortnight ago it immediately drew criticism, most notably from the Italian media, for its radical design which even those within Ferrari have labelled "ugly".

After three days of testing in Jerez so far this week, although little can be read into times, Ferrari have yet to dip below one minute and 20 seconds for a lap of the southern Spanish track, unlike most of their rivals.

In the car for the first time today, Fernando Alonso posted its best lap time of 1:20.412, but it is clear there are concerns.

Technical director Pat Fry, pressed on the new car's performance, finally revealed: "I am not happy with where we are at the moment.

"There is a lot of room for us to improve. Reliability-wise it is good. Performance-wise I think we are okay.

"But we can play around with the performance and improve the car in some corners, and some particular parts of the corner.

"But I would not say I am happy yet until we get the whole thing working."

There are now just nine more test days remaining ahead of the March 18 opener in Melbourne - one more tomorrow in Jerez, and two separate four-day tests in Barcelona.

Fry is aware of the time constraints, adding: "Certainly the three tests rather than four does compress things a little, and we have a lot of work to do.

"Everything is a lot more compressed, so there is a lot of pressure on everyone. You have to try and make decisions quickly.

"We have a one-week break coming up, but then it is two solid weeks (in Barcelona) and then you are packing the freight for Melbourne.

"So there is a lot of work for everyone to do. It is the same for every team up the pit lane."