Mexico nightmare ‘a good lesson’ for Ferrari

Editor

Ferrari team boss Maurizio Arrivabene feels his outfit's double DNF in Mexico was a good character-building experience.

For the first time since the 2006 Australian GP, both Ferrari cars failed to see the chequered flag as Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen crashed out at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Sunday.

Despite the disappointment, Arrivabene feels the Scuderia learned some valuable lessons.

"During the course of this season, we touched the sky. Today, we touched the bottom," the Italian said. "This is a good lesson for all of us, preparing ourselves and the character of the team for next year.

"I don’t want to blame Kimi one way, I don’t want to blame Seb in the other way. I mean, we don’t have to make an excuse, and they don’t have to make an excuse – we are a team."

For the second time in three races Raikkonen made contact with Valtteri Bottas, but the Ferrari driver came off second best in Mexico whereas in Russia it was the Williams driver who crashed out.

The stewards decided that neither driver was at fault for the latest incident and Arrivabene agrees with them.

"They are racing accidents, it happened in Russia, it happened here, it is Formula 1," he added.

"The most important thing is that no one gets injured and this is the most important thing for safety. It is part of the show, I don't want to blame anyone."