- Ferrari
Arrivabene: 'Kimi, you are like a hammer'
Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene has given some insight into how he intends to keep Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen happy this year.
Arrivabene took over as Ferrari boss last year, marking a new era as Vettel joined from Red Bull and major changes were made to the engineering team. Both drivers have commented on the positive atmosphere at Ferrari this year and Arrivabene has underlined the importance of keeping both Vettel and Raikkonen happy.
"Seb of course was happy [in Australia] because his dream came true; to get the podium with Ferrari is something that is really special for a Formula One driver," Arrivabene said. "Concerning Kimi, I was going straight away to talk with him and what you need to do with a driver is to understand and keep him up. Otherwise, if you just celebrate with one and ignore the other it doesn't work.
"The two guys are working very well together and my job is to keep the right balance and to make Kimi confident. I repeat to him many times, 'Kimi, you are like a hammer, you were pushing like hell and your timing was good' and this is what I am convinced [by]. But we need two drivers scoring constructors' points not one and Kimi can do his job properly."
Arrivabene said Ferrari was initially looking just to beat Williams and Red Bull, but after Vettel finished as best of the rest behind the Mercedes in Australia it is now focusing its attention on catching the reigning champions.
"Our goal was looking forward to Williams and Red Bull and now we need to be a bit more convinced about ourselves to reduce the gap to the guys with Mercedes cars.
"It's just a question to continue like this with the right methodology. [We need to] work and respect the programme without panicking and keeping up the spirit of the team."
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