Sebastian Vettel finally let his frustrations be known with Ferrari and teammate Kimi Raikkonen after a disastrous Italian Grand Prix.
The German saw his hopes of a fifth championship suffer a significant blow as he made contact with Lewis Hamilton on the opening lap at Monza, dropped to the back and then recovered to fourth.
With the Briton going on to win, it means the gap between the two is now 30 points with seven races to go and Vettel believes his team should take the blame for what happened.
“I’m not particularly happy with the way Ferrari managed things on Saturday [in qualifying],” he told Ziggo Sport. “It should’ve been me starting from pole position.”
The four-time world champion was referring to how he being the lead driver resulted in him giving Raikkonen a tow on his final Q3 lap which was enough to snatch P1, on the radio afterwards he told the team “we’ll discuss later”.
Turning his attention to the race, Vettel added: “When I had to evade him in the next [second] chicane, Lewis could get past. I had no space and made a spin and had severe damage.
“For me, it’s clear: I have to race three cars, including my teammate.”
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Speaking after the race, team boss Maurizio Arrivabene called on the Scuderia to re-double their efforts ahead of a key race coming up next.
“It was definitely not the result we were looking for to give to our fans, who supported us in fine style all weekend, for which I thank them on behalf of the entire team,” he said, reflecting on Monza.
“We know we have a very strong car, which was clearly demonstrated by the fact we monopolised the front row of the grid. Now, the important thing is to react as a team, in an orderly and determined fashion, without ever giving up.
“There is still a long way to go in the championship and we are already preparing for the next challenge in Singapore.”
