Vettel and Raikkonen recently embraced the inner child in them as the two Ferrari drivers got on a rollercoaster ride at Ferrari’s theme park in Abu Dhabi. Vettel started in the pit lane in that race and still finished third. He is now fifth in the latest World Drivers’ Championship standings, only one point behind fellow compatriot Valterri Bottas while Vettel is third with 266 points.
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Raikkonen was in danger of losing his seat with the Italian outfit but Ferrari have retained their faith in the Finn by extending his contract until the end of next season. “So it’s going to be a matter of going to do our own race and try to maintain first of all the position but if there’s anything better than that we will try to take it”.
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen has admitted he has been “pretty average” this season. Perez’s run came amid a flurry of qualifying simulations on Pirelli’s super-soft compound and put him just ahead of the Ferraris and Red Bulls. Also, Ferrari have been the only team who have threatened Mercedes this season and Raikkonen felt they could pose more of a challenge next year.
“Compared to the opening year, when there was more downforce in the auto, now it’s a bit more fun, especially in the last sector you have to make sure to find the rhythm, otherwise you can drop your lap time”.
“Is it going to happen?”
Discussing Williams’ vehicle performance this year, Bottas said: “We have to deal with what we have”. We hope so at least.
“I should have done a quicker lap and we could have made it but in that moment we thought it was enough but it wasn’t – obviously quite costly”, said Vettel, a three times victor in Abu Dhabi.
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“We worked closer than ever with our colleagues in Maranello where we fully integrated our development plans to optimise the fuel-engine package and it was great to see that our hard work paid off”, said Shell motorsport innovation manager Guy Lovett.
