Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene says Kimi Raikkonen “is always complaining”, as the Finn reported having several difficulties with his car over the Singapore Grand Prix weekend.
While Raikkonen managed to return to the podium for the first time since Bahrain last April, the 2007 world champion could not match team-mate Sebastian Vettel’s dominant pace at Marina Bay Circuit.
Raikkonen insisted that he struggled from Saturday onwards, calling his eventual third-place finish “not ideal”. When asked about the 35-year-old’s persistent troubles, Arrivabene replied:
“Kimi is always complaining! No, no problem at all. The usual comments when they are doing the setting of the car, the difference is Seb is quiet and Kimi is screaming, nothing special.
“It’s like in Monza, where Kimi was very, very strong. Here it was Sebastian. Sebastian loves this circuit and is particularly strong here so I don’t want to do comparisons between our drivers. They were up to the podium and for me that’s enough.”
Although Vettel never really came under huge pressure en route to his third Ferrari victory, the Maranello boss admits he was jittery all race long.
“I was quite concerned and very concentrated because if you are in pole position somehow you are obliged to win. Here, it's not easy to do it because you see Safety Cars.
“You need first to do a good start, second it could be that you have a Safety Car – we had two – so it’s a bit unpredictable and when you feel like this you get quite nervous.”
Having declared at the start of the current F1 campaign that he would be happy to see Ferrari win three races in 2015, Arrivabene is hungry for more now that his squad has achieved its pre-season goal.
“Actually I said four, this is the reason why we would like to win five!” he concluded, half-jokingly.
REPORT: Vettel takes third win as Hamilton retires in Singapore
AS IT HAPPENED: 2015 Singapore Grand Prix
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