The Ferrari team took a podium at its home race in Italy but the weekend at the Monza circuit was difficult for the Scuderia. Team principal Maurizio Arrivabene said the team could not be satisfied with the result – third place for Sebastian Vettel and fifth for Kimi Raikkonen. Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne classified the performance as a screw-up.
“It was a difficult weekend at a track that definitely didn’t suit the technical characteristics of the SF70H”, Arrivabene explained.
“The great crowd of our fans here at Monza supported us all the way and the entire team thanks them for that. After a far from ideal qualifying in the wet, Sebastian managed to get the better of the drivers directly ahead of him on the grid and thus make it to the podium. As for Kimi, he had a more difficult time due to the balance on his car being inconsistent. Despite the fact that everyone in the team did their utmost, we cannot be satisfied with this result. We will tackle the next race in Singapore with our feet on the ground and with our usual determination.”
“We were not as quick as the Mercedes, but considering where we started from, we got the best result in the race”, Vettel commented
“It was not ideal, but we are working very hard on what we want to achieve. The next tracks should be ok for us. We know we have to work on ourselves and where. I got a lot of adrenalin from being on that podium. Of course, I wanted to win, but I am confident we are on the right way. It was not a great day for us, but at the same time it was brilliant to feel all the passion. Leading the championship is not important as much as winning the championship, it’s where you are at the last race that counts. It is clear where we want to go, what we want to achieve.”
Kimi Raikkonen added: “For the whole race I kept struggling with the balance of the car. It never felt like it should have done. On some laps it was getting better, but most of the time we were lacking the grip and the pace. It was not an easy weekend. We were fighting in all conditions, in the dry and even more in the wet. This is something that we have to fix for these kinds of circuit. I’m disappointed as the result is not what we wanted. For sure if you take the pure layout of the track it’s not an easy one for us, which is unfortunate at our home grand prix. I would be surprised if it’s the same story at the next race. Because on paper the race in Singapore should be better for us. Now we have to go there and do our best.”
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— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) September 3, 2017
