MONTREAL, Canada -- Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene admitted Ferrari made an error with its strategy at the Canadian Grand Prix, but stressed he was not pointing the finger at individuals within the team.
Sebastian Vettel took the lead at the start of the race, but a two-stop strategy saw him shuffled behind eventual winner Lewis Hamilton when he made his second stop. Ferrari planned on a two-stop strategy from the start of the race based on how it thought the tyres would degrade and decided to bring forward the first stop to take advantage of a Virtual Safety Car period.
"We overestimated the degradation on the tyres, so this is the reason why we called [Vettel] in and it was the wrong decision," Arrivabene told Sky Sports after the Grand Prix. "We don't have to make the story bigger than what it is. Today we made a mistake, but in other races everybody makes a mistake."
When he was asked to elaborate on the error in a media conference a few hours later, Arrivabene said he did not want to blame anyone within the team.
"I have to say yes, and I have to apologise to the team because straight after the race Sky Sports F1 UK jumped on me and said, 'Who was the guy that made the mistake on the strategy?' First of all, in my role, I don't have to indicate anyone because if, and I underline if, there is a mistake, this mistake is on my shoulders and not on my team.
"Having said so, I think the question is, 'What about the strategy?' It is quite clear if you look that only two pilots that were doing one stop [finished in the top-ten], one was Bottas and the other one was Hamilton. We didn't predict that Hamilton was able to go to the end of the race.
"Let me say that I was really happy with the start of Sebastian because I think it was one of the greatest starts that I have ever seen in Formula One. I was really happy and we pushed hard and I think the work that we started straight after Monaco, starts to pay off, we understand better the car and we are working during the race weekend in a way that we are able to find the right balance and this is going to pay off because I think today was an interesting race. Yesterday too, [but] we have to do more and more and more, I think.
"We need to continue like this and be positive and be positive and be positive. Of course when you sniff the victory that is nearby you, you get a bit nervous or disappointed straight after the race because it has happened to me [and we didn't get it]. But I think the team was doing a great job this weekend, I have to say. I am happy."