Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Maurizio Arrivabene was disappointed the Italian squad missed out on the win at Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, but feels they showed they have a car that is reliable and fast, and will allow them to challenge for the world title.
“Shame for the end result, but we leave Spain knowing that we can count on a car that is solid and very quick.”
Arrivabene felt they did all they could in terms of strategy for Vettel, and some bad luck with the Virtual Safety Car at a vital moment, left them on the back foot for the final part of the race.
“Seb’s race was very good from the start, and he was able to lead for many laps.
“In the last stint, despite being on Medium tyres, he held off Hamilton until he had to give way to his main rival, who could take the best of DRS and Soft compound.
“More time was lost behind Bottas and also because of the Virtual Safety Car, which ended just when we had to pit to cover Hamilton’s move.”
The Italian believes it was unfortunate that driver Kimi Raikkonen was taken out of the race on the very first lap, but concedes that is the way it goes sometimes and they cannot dwell on misfortune beyond their control.
“Kimi’s race did not last long, as he was rammed at the first corner. That’s racing, and we must keep our concentration and humility, as we are aware that there is still a lot of work to do and so much to improve.”
Ferrari brought some updates to the Spanish Grand Prix, which produced performance gains, but not as much as those introduced by the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, who stepped it up a gear this weekend.
With fifteen rounds of the season still remaining however, Arrivabene is confident they will be able to overtake their main rivals by the end of the year, and the squad have already turned their attentions to the next race in Monaco, where they hope to be the team on the top step of the podium.
“The championship is still a long way and we are already focusing on the next race at Monaco.”
