Ferrari team boss Maurizio Arrivabene says the 2016 championship is far from over for his team, despite a lacklustre result at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Sunday's race was the first time this season a Ferrari has not been on the podium after Kimi Raikkonen retired with front wing damage and Sebastian Vettel finished fourth behind Force India's Sergio Perez. For the second race in a row the Italian team was outclassed by Red Bull and now only has a nine point advantage over the Milton Keynes outfit in the constructors' championship as well as a growing 67-point deficit to the dominant Mercedes team in first place.
Raikkonen has dropped to fourth in the drivers' standings, 45 points off championship leader Nico Rosberg, and Vettel is fifth one point behind his team-mate. Yet Arrivabene refuses to accept the 2016 title is slipping out of his team's reach this season.
"No way," he said in Monaco. "No way, because you saw the result from here is quite good, [Lewis] Hamilton is coming back and what we have to do is keep our concentration, keep focus on the races and to look forward. I think this championship is going to be quite interesting."
Arrivabene said Ferrari must focus on its lack of pace in the final stage of qualifying after being beaten by Mercedes and Red Bull at the last two races.
"The only podium that we were missing is today. At the beginning of the season I won't tell you the story again, you know what's happened, but I don't want to find any excuses. We were not good enough in Barcelona - only in Q3 - and the same also here and then we paid the fee during the race.
"I take the lessons and we need to really understand what the problem is because if you recall in Q1 not only in Barcelona because it's another story but here in Q1 we did a 1:40.1 and we are slower in Q3. So that is the problem that we have to look for."