Maurizio Arrivabene felt Sebastian Vettel’s third place finish in the season closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was just reward for the hard work and efforts the Scuderia Ferrari team have put across the 2016 Formula 1 season.
The Team Principal of the Maranello-based team admitted that the team have under-performed during 2016, with no victories coming their way, but Arrivabene felt that since the summer, the team have shown their strengths as they developed the SF16-H without giving up.
Vettel’s third place finish was his seventh top three finish of the season, while team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who finished sixth on Sunday after struggles with his tyres compared to Vettel, took four, but the fact that a podium finish came at the end of the season proved to Arrivabene that they were developing the car in the right way.
“This podium finish is a boost to the motivation of the whole team, for the people back home, who have been working so hard since this summer, and for the ones at the track, who never gave up,” said Arrivabene.
“It’s clear that we did not reach the targets we had set for ourselves, yet this last race shows that something is moving in the right direction.”
