Ferrari chiefs hail the ’omnivorous’ SF70-H
Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene and technical chief officer Mattia Binotto were delighted and relieved that the Scuderia managed to put the curse of Monaco behind and secured its first win in the Principality since 2001.
Ferrari recorded its third win of the season and its first one-two finish. The Italians showed commaning pace on the narrow streets of Monte Carlo and gave no room for the others to endanger their resurgance on the circuit which has not been kind to the Prancing Horse over the last years.
Team chief Maurizio Arrivabene showed no emotions after the electrifying qualifying session as he thought of Ferrari’s woes at the Russian GP where the team could not transform its front row lock-out into victory after experiencing troubles at the start.
However, the 58-year-old was delighted with the race result and praised the work of his whole team.
“Today’s one-two is a great result for the entire team, on a track that highlights the qualities of the car and the person driving it. Both our drivers performed like champions” started Arrivabene.
„Starting from pole, Kimi led the race up until his pit stop, which took place on the planned lap. Seb stayed out for a few more laps to cover Ricciardo. Vettel’s times were exceptional on Ultrasofts that had done a lot of laps, which confirms the quality of the Pirelli product. As for Kimi, unfortunately he lost a bit too much time behind a backmarker.”
The former sponsor guru gives no time for the team to rest as the Canadian GP is only in a fortnight time and the track of Montreal means a completely diverse challenge to the cars with its never-ending straights and slow-speed turns.
„The most important aspect of today is that all the hard work carried out by the guys at the track was rewarded, as was the fact that our car was so well conceived back in Maranello. Now, it’s already time for us to think of the forthcoming Grand Prix in Canada,” said Arrivabene.
The team’s chief technical officer Mattia Binotto highlighted the fact that the SF70-H behaved very strong on all type of tracks and in every condition F1 has experienced so far over the first six races of the 2017 championship campaign.
“Today’s result was built on the front row we secured yesterday in qualifying. It shows that the SF70H was well suited to all the conditions we encountered over the weekend at a circuit that requires maximum aerodynamic downforce.”
The Swiss-Italian stressed that improvements on the already strong machinery are very much needed as Mercedes constantly poses a real challenge to the Italians.
„But in fact, we can claim that, so far, our car has behaved very well on all types of track. Now we look ahead, one step at a time, aware of the importance of upcoming developments,” concluded Binotto.
