Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene has told the team to believe in itself and chase Mercedes after finishing third in the Australian Grand Prix.
Sebastian Vettel beat Williams’ Felipe Massa to the final podium place behind the dominant Mercedes pair of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at Albert Park on Sunday.
With Ferrari coming off the back of a season which yielded just two podiums in 2014 - finishing fourth behind Red Bull and Williams in the constructors’ championship - Arrivabene admits the original focus was to catch those two teams but he now feels Mercedes should be Ferrari’s target.
“Our goal was that we were looking forward towards Williams and Red Bull at the beginning,” Arrivabene said. “Now we need to be a bit more convinced by ourselves and to try to reduce the gap to the Mercedes guys.”
Hamilton won by over 30 seconds in Melbourne, leading Christian Horner to call on the FIA to try and rein Mercedes back in. However, Arrivabene doesn’t agree with Red Bull’s approach.
“Of course [Mercedes’ dominance] is not a situation that we like but our role is to challenge the status quo, it’s not to write down the rules.”
Click here for the full gallery from the Australian Grand Prix
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
