After a year of failing to achieve his own objectives as Ferrari team principal, Maurzio Arrivabene says Sebastian Vettel's podium in Abu Dhabi is proof "something is moving in the right direction".
Ferrari entered 2016 optimistic it would take the fight to reigning champions Mercedes, but by the end of the season on Sunday it had fallen to third in the constructors' championship behind Red Bull. Despite coming close to winning the Australian and Canadian Grands Prix, the Italian team finished the season without a victory and with just one podium in the final seven races courtesy of Vettel's late charge through the field in Abu Dhabi.
"This podium finish is a boost to the motivation of the whole team, for the people back home, who have been working so hard since this summer, and for the ones at the track, who never gave up," he said. "It's clear that we did not reach the targets we had set for ourselves this year, yet this last race shows that something is moving in the right direction."
Vettel said there was no point trying to disguise Ferrari's disappointing performance in 2016.
"As a team we deserve this podium, and I hope it gives some momentum to all of us. It has been a tough year, with lots of up and downs, so I am really happy with this result. About our global performance in 2016, I think we don't need to find any story or invent something. I think we expected more; but after the first half, where we could have scored more points, I think we showed real strength by coming back.
"In the last couple of Grand Prix we had very good race pace, always enough to match Red Bull, and probably even a bit quicker: but that was not the case on Saturdays, and that made Sundays more difficult. Overall we showed the stamina that the team has. The spirit is unbroken, and I know that we will work hard, because Ferrari deserves to come back. All in all we learned a lot, we made a lot of progress."