Maurizio Arrivabene admitted Scuderia Ferrari were just not quick enough throughout the Russian Grand Prix weekend, with Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen ending the race on Sunday in third and fourth position.
Arrivabene, the Team Principal of the Maranello-based squad, admitted that the Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport team appeared to have the jump on them throughout the weekend at the Sochi Autodrom, with the pace of the SF71H not quick enough to worry either Lewis Hamilton nor Valtteri Bottas.
“Right from Friday, the Sochi weekend was rather a difficult one for us,” said Arrivabene. “Despite all our efforts to find the ideal set-up, neither on Saturday nor in the race were we competitive enough to worry our closest rivals.
“Compared to the way we performed at other circuits, something was missing here and so we were unable to reduce the points gap.”
Looking forward to this coming weekends Japanese Grand Prix, Arrivabene feels the Suzuka International Racing Course should give a better indication of how Ferrari will perform across the final five races of the season, but there is determination to still fight until the very end for both championships.
“On paper, the next race in Japan should have very similar characteristics to the one at Silverstone, so in Suzuka, we will get a more precise indication as to the potential of our car,” said Arrivabene.
“If it goes well, we will know that, despite the difficult situation in terms of the classification, we still have the right tools with which to fight all the way to the very end.”
