May 31 (GMM) Jean Alesi does not believe Ferrari acted deliberately to disadvantage Kimi Raikkonen in Monaco.
Some suspect that with Sebastian Vettel leading the world championship, the Italian team’s pit strategy was an obvious ploy to drop Raikkonen behind his German teammate.
Team boss Maurizio Arrivabene denies it.
“Kimi drives not only for Ferrari — he also wants to win races,” he said.
“Both are fabulous, so I stress again that Ferrari does not give team orders.”
Alesi, most famous for driving for Ferrari in the 90s, agrees: “I can understand Kimi’s disappointment — he had a great weekend.
“But Vettel won with a clear victory. It reminded me a bit of the final at Roland-Garros: when one wins, the other is always unhappy. But everything was decided on the track,” the Frenchman is quoted by Canal Plus.
“The team did nothing to favour a driver and I have nothing to add,” said Alesi.
Another former Ferrari driver and Frenchman, Alain Prost, commented: “We did not know how Ferrari would react at Monaco, especially in comparison to Mercedes with its long wheelbase but also relative to Red Bull who perform very well.
“Now we have the answer: Ferrari are good everywhere. They have a great chassis and two great drivers. Both drivers are able to be ahead, even Kimi Raikkonen, so I do not believe there is a number 1 driver in the team,” he said.
“I would just say that Sebastian is a notch above as he is very consistent and will be very hard to beat,” Prost added.