F1: No surrender at Ferrari, Arrivabene says

Ferrari will not change its target of two Formula 1 wins in 2015 following a lackluster Canadian Grand Prix as that would equate to surrendering, says team chief Maurizio Arrivabene.

Hopes of a stronger Ferrari challenge to pacesetter Mercedes were high after the Scuderia dipped into its token allocation to upgrade its engine ahead of the Montreal race. But a disappointing weekend ended with Kimi Raikkonen finishing fourth after a spin and Sebastian Vettel recovering to fifth having started 18th because of a power loss problem in qualifying and penalty for passing under red flags in practice.

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When asked whether the disappointing result would change Ferrari's targets, Arrivabene said: "No, absolutely no change. If I am going to change the objectives, it's like I'm going to say we've surrendered.

"If you go every race to the podium it becomes boring, but when you go down from the podium it is worse. I think we need to keep our position on the podium and look up, not look down. I haven't changed the objectives, no way."

Arrivabene insisted the engine upgrade was a success but said the reality is Mercedes is simply stronger at present.

"I think the engine upgrade was giving us the positive answer we've been asking for," he said. "Unfortunately, the weekend was not a good one for a number of circumstances that are in front of everybody, but the response we got from the engine was good.

"It's a long way to go. We need to have a bit of humility to recognize that at the moment they are stronger than us, without thinking we close the gap so we can beat them every race. This is not realistic, honestly, but the answer that we got this weekend was quite good."

Originally on AUTOSPORT.com