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Maurizio Arrivabene struggled to hide his anger after the Canadian grand prix. With Sebastian Vettel struggling through the field following reliability problems and a penalty, Ferrari's podium challenge was left to teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who is pushing to have his contract extended for 2016.
Boss Arrivabene already had the Finn on notice to up his game in qualifying, and Raikkonen was on course for a sure podium in Montreal when he spun. "It may be a case of contributory negligence," Arrivabene said, "as he said the same thing happened last year."
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Indeed, Raikkonen suggested the problem might be related to a post-pitstop engine setting issue, but he insisted "something odd" happened rather than a basic driving error. But when asked for his first thoughts after the race, Arrivabene could not contain his fury.
Asked by Sky Italia to give his thoughts, he said: "I'd better not say what I am thinking right know. We have thrown away a podium, that's the truth. There are no excuses," Arrivabene charged. "The podium may seem boring now, but being off the podium is even worse," he added. Ferrari is said to have added almost 30 horse power with its Canada engine upgrade, and Arrivabene said: "No excuses, I expected us to be better with the update, but instead we are further back."
Worse still for Raikkonen, one of his chief rivals for the 2016 Ferrari seat - Williams' Valtteri Bottas - inherited the podium place. The spin was also in the rare presence of Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne, who was asked about Raikkonen's future just before the start of the race. "First, we have the pleasure to see him race, and from there we will decide," Marchionne said.
Asked if he thinks he could have even challenged the two Mercedes this weekend with a normal grid position, German Vettel answered: "Unfortunately we will never know. But we didn't expect any miracles with this update. In some races we are closer, but in others further away, as Mercedes are not stupid and they also make progress." (GMM)
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