Arrivabene hits back at Mercedes’ Allison

Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene says James Allison “should be ashamed of himself” for reportedly questioning whether Kimi Raikkonen deliberately hit Lewis Hamilton in the British Grand Prix.

Hamilton was angered after being hit by Raikkonen at Turn 3 on the opening lap, and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff subsequently told Sky Sports that Mercedes was questioning if the contact was deliberate, citing James Allison as making the suggestion during the race. When the former Ferrari technical director’s alleged comments reached Arrivabene, the Italian (pictured above) took to Sky Italia to hit back at his former employee.

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“I came here to clarify, if he [Allison] actually said something like that, I mean, he should be ashamed of himself,” Arrivabene said. “Because he worked many years in Maranello, he took quite a bit of money from Maranello as well. He’s doing his job, you have to be elegant and know how to lose.”

Prompted that the comments were a lapse in taste, Arrivabene continued: “Also we're here in England, sometimes they want to teach us how to be gentlemen -- he should start first.

“Really, this annoyed me so much. Also, incompetent who? Kimi? Who's he [Allison] to judge what a driver is doing in the car? I can accept it from Jacques [Villeneuve, Sky Italia pundit] because he's been a driver, but that person [Allison] didn’t.”

Saying he believes Allison’s reaction is down to losing his home race, Arrivabene wants Ferrari to learn from the incident to ensure it reacts in an acceptable manner if beaten by Mercedes in future.

“First of all he [Allison] should look the telemetry and understand that his driver unfortunately for himself had a bad start, so having a bad start he immediately lost two positions. Kimi had a good start -- we have the telemetry data -- so he found himself immediately on top of Hamilton.

“I want to remind everyone that in China we had a situation between Vettel and Verstappen and nobody said anything, all fine.

“But I mean, I want to give them a message: it's been a beautiful battle, a battle that I think the audience appreciated. There will be other battles where most likely Mercedes will win. This is a lesson for us to stay classy -- a thing that they haven't done.”