Brazilian Felipe Massa urged fans to keep faith with Ferrari after the Formula One champions slumped to their worst start to a season since 1981 at the Chinese Grand Prix today.

"I would say to our fans that they should not give up on us, as this is a difficult moment, but the championship is still long," he said.

Ferrari have now failed to score points for three races in a row, leaving the glamour team languishing in last place in the standings. Leaders Brawn GP, winners of the first two races, have scored 36.

Massa slowed with an electrical problem while in third place on Sunday while his 2007 world champion team mate Kimi Raikkonen finished 10th in the rainswept race.

"The great shame is that at a time when technically we are not at our best, once again we failed to capitalise on circumstances," said team principal Stefano Domenicali in a statement.

Massa, who missed out on the title by a single point last season despite winning more races than McLaren's world champion Lewis Hamilton, said motivation was not the problem.

He said the team needed to get on top of their continuing reliability problems.

"Obviously I'm very disappointed and a bit upset but my motivation is still intact," he said. "All of us must work together to get out of this situation.

"The team is united and there is a real will to turn things around as soon as possible."

Raikkonen recognised he and the team had to do better.

"Clearly the championship situation looks very difficult. We have made mistakes and we are not quick enough," said the Finn. "I am sure we can be competitive enough to win again but this work will take time.

"The team is motivated, I'm sure of that, and we will all do our bit.

"Now it is easy to criticize but we know how to turn things around," added the driver who overcame a 17 point deficit in the final two races of 2007 to beat Hamilton to that year's championship.