“I remember it was 10th or 12th of December, I was speaking to [chief designer Simone] Resta and Rory [Byrne] and we were watching a picture of the car,” said Arrivabene. “I asked, ‘What can you do to transfer weight a bit more to the front?’ Because, I said, Kimi likes to feel the car this way and Sebastian [Vettel] is more or less the same.
“They said, ‘We need six months.’ I said, ‘What can you do in three?’ They said, ‘We need to work more or less day and night.’ so I said, ‘OK, I will work together with you guys. Come on.'”
VETTEL “HONESTY” PRAISED
Bahrain was the first time Raikkonen had beaten Vettel in their spell as teammates, although the German had been ahead until running off track and breaking his front wing. Arrivabene said he had been impressed by how Vettel handled his error.
“Sebastian is a fantastic person – he’s very honest and he’s not finding any excuses,” said Arrivabene. “He made a mistake but he’s a human being. He says immediately if he makes a mistake, like when he went onto gravel out of the final turn and broke his front wing. I appreciate this.
“With Kimi, it is very straightforward. Seb is the same, he’s a very honest person and a fantastic driver and let’s not forget what he already achieved so far.”