Ferrari: Räikkönen and Vettel Leave Canada Frustrated
Ferrari experienced a frustrating weekend in Montreal, confirmed by a disappointing race this Sunday. Despite Sebastian Vettel's impressive climb to fifth place, the team remains disappointed for missing the podium with Kimi Räikkönen.
Kimi Räikkönen represented Ferrari’s best chance to finish on the podium this Sunday at the Canadian Grand Prix. However, despite a good start, the Finn experienced a mishap similar to the one he faced last year at the hairpin.
The 2007 world champion spun out and saw Valtteri Bottas pass him to take the podium. Enough to be disappointed and frustrated: « Today’s [yesterday’s] result is not ideal, we were hoping for much more than what we ultimately got. My start was pretty good but I didn’t have enough speed to overtake the Mercedes at the first corner. The tires worked well but, on this kind of circuit, fuel economy plays an important role and it limited our speed today. My spin was the same story as last year, I had no problems during all the sessions this weekend but something strange happened with the throttle, and I couldn’t control it. It’s really bad luck » the Finn admitted last night.
This mishap forced the team to alter the Finnish driver’s strategy by making him pit a second time: « We tried to make up for it, but we were on a different strategy than Williams. »
Maurizio Arrivabene, rather annoyed at missing a podium after the race, will nevertheless seek to understand what happened to Räikkönen: « For Kimi, we had planned for only one stop, then we switched to two tire changes when he fell behind Bottas. His exit at the hairpin is something we haven’t fully understood yet. It might be a common oversight since he said it was the same as last year. It would be wrong to blame either him or the team. »
The only source of satisfaction ultimately comes from Sebastian Vettel’s impressive comeback, securing 5th place behind his teammate after starting from the back of the grid: « It was an entertaining race, and I made a nice comeback, but obviously, there wasn’t much more we could have done » said the German after his race.
Maurizio Arrivabene wasn’t wrong and congratulated his protégé for his Grand Prix: « Sebastian had a very good race, climbing thirteen places from the starting grid. »
