Arrivabene says gap to Mercedes 'shrinking'

Jun.13 (GMM) Ferrari can look on the bright side despite missing victory in Sunday's Canadian grand prix.

That is the unified message of Sebastian Vettel as well as the Maranello team's boss, even though Maurizio Arrivabene had initially been critical of a strategy mistake that arguably cost the German driver the Montreal win.

It has been a difficult last few races for Ferrari, with the highly-critical Italian media saying the team had even fallen behind Red Bull in the packing order.

"Sometimes it seems like the Italian press is our biggest opponent," Vettel said on Sunday. "So maybe you can write something nice now," he told a reporter for Italy's authoritative La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Vettel had refused to be critical of Sunday's strategy error that left Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton to cruise to victory, and boss Arrivabene agrees that Ferrari should be feeling upbeat.

"With humility, but also with confidence," he said when asked how Ferrari will now move on to this weekend's inaugural race in Azerbaijan.

"We have responded to the problems of Spain and Monaco and understand the car better now," added Arrivabene. "The gap to Mercedes shrinks, but it's still not enough."

Finally, amid swirling rumours about the identity of Vettel's teammate for 2017, Arrivabene was asked about another particularly poor weekend for Kimi Raikkonen.

"Kimi had problems this weekend," said the Italian, "which happens in racing. Sometimes the weekend goes perfectly, at other times not."