Ferrari Team Principal Maurizio Arrivabene has dismissed suggestions that the squad is favouring Sebastian Vettel over Kimi Räikkönen, emphasising that there are “no team orders”.
Räikkönen led from pole position in Monaco but second-placed Vettel extended his stint by five laps and used the overcut to emerge ahead, securing victory, his third of the season, in a Ferrari 1-2.
Arrivabene has hit back at claims that Ferrari is favouring Vettel, who holds a 25-point advantage over Lewis Hamilton, for the Drivers’ Championship, insisting the team’s priority is winning the Constructors' title, in which it leads Mercedes by 17 points.
“I mean I was reading after Monaco and hearing a lot of speculation about number 1 and number 2 [drivers],” Arrivabene commented at the Canadian Grand Prix.
“I always said that it’s not that situation in the team, we all do our best for the Constructors’ Championship.
“To be able to do well in the Constructors’ you need two drivers and this is very important for Ferrari… so I was very, very clear since the beginning of the season; our rules of engagement, the team is above everything.
“I’m talking about the drivers, there is no team order, this is very, very clear, the drivers know about this, they accept it.”
Arrivabene added that Ferrari will eventually back one driver, if the title becomes mathematically impossible for the other, but was “laughing” at suggestions it had imposed instructions already.
“I think that what happened in Monaco, let me say I was also a bit laughing when I heard all this comment because it’s not the reality,” he said.
“There’s no problem in between the drivers, we are looking as Ferrari to the Constructors' [title]
“The Drivers’ Championship is their job, they are free to do it until the number is clear in one direction or the other, in that case we apply our rules of engagement, but not now and not in Monaco.”
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