Maurizio Arrivabene felt the Monaco Grand Prix weekend was not as straightforward for Scuderia Ferrari in 2018 as it was twelve months ago as the team principal watched Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen claim second and fourth on Sunday.
Last year, Vettel and Räikkönen finished first and second in what was a dominant weekend for the Maranello-based team, but twelve months later they were bettered by Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo, while Räikkönen also lost out to Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton.
Arrivabene felt the SF71-H got better throughout the weekend, which enabled them to qualify one car on the front row, but Vettel was unable to capitalise on Ricciardo’s MGU-K failure due to the extreme difficulty of passing around the Circuit de Monaco, while the German was also unable to attack in the final laps as he was compromised by the introduction of the Virtual Safety Car.
“Compared to the race weekend here last year, this one seemed more difficult right from the start,” said Arrivabene. “But thanks to the efforts of everyone in the team, the SF71H got progressively better, until it proved capable of taking second place in qualifying.
“However, on a track like this, it was not enough to produce an even better race result. Like everyone else, we opted for a one-stop strategy, which therefore meant having to manage the tyres in the second stint, so as to save them for the final laps.
“However, at that point, the Virtual safety car came out, meaning it was no longer possible to attack.”
