Team Principal Maurizio Arrivabene believes the Scuderia Ferrari squad paid the price for a poor performance during qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix that ultimately denied them a first race victory of 2016.
Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel qualified fifth and sixth on the grid for the race at the Circuit de Catalunya, and were only able to finish second and third respectively on Sunday behind the latest new race winner in Formula 1, Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing.
Arrivabene admits that had Mercedes AMG PETRONAS duo Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton not collided on the opening lap, then the team would have been fighting only for a podium rather than a race win in Spain.
“We must be realistic and accept the fact that, if both Mercedes had been in the race, the result would have been different,” said Arrivabene. “Today we had an opportunity and we failed to take advantage.
“Even if on track we had a fast car we had to pay a hefty price for the problems we experienced in qualifying and which, on some parts of the circuit, re-surfaced during the course of the race. Now we must address these issues and move on from there.”
