Maurizio Arrivabene has accepted that “something was missing” for Ferrari at Formula 1’s Russian Grand Prix as it fell to a third straight defeat.
Ferrari has fought with Mercedes for overall honours this season, with Sebastian Vettel trading the points lead with Lewis Hamilton across the opening half of 2018.
But since Vettel’s exit in Germany Hamilton has led the way, extending his points advantage to 50 courtesy of his fifth win from the last six races in Russia.
It came after Ferrari trailed Mercedes through most of practice and qualifying, falling over half a second adrift of its opponent, with the bulk of the time loss coming in the final sector.
“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.
“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.
“If it goes well, we will know that, despite the difficult situation in terms of the classification, we still have the right weapons with which to fight all the way to the very end.”
Kimi Raikkonen, who classified a lonely fourth, echoed Arrivabene’s conclusion.
“We went as fast as we could but they were faster,” he said.
“Did they push as much as they needed? Probably not, just enough to keep us behind.
“I don’t know, we’re a bit behind in pure speed, but in the race the car feels OK. But we need to go a bit faster everywhere.
“Let’s see in the next race if it’s still the same or not. Hopefully it’s a slightly different story, more like it was a little while ago. I guess they found something.”
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