Ferrari hints at upgrade 'surprise' in coming races

Although the Maranello outfit has still not won a race so far this season, Arrivabene is convinced that the potential is there for Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen to close down the advantage Mercedes has built up in the first eight races of the year.

When asked about potential upgrades that could be arriving to help Ferrari achieve its aim, Arrivabene suggested there could be something interesting on the horizon.

“I won’t tell you the exact dates, but I can tell you that are engineers do not sleep,” he said. “Some surprises will come – because our chassis engineers are sleeping even less.”

Hamilton ally

Arrivabene’s belief that Ferrari can still win the title stems from the fact that he believes the contest between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg will result in them taking points off each other.

That means that there is scope for Vettel in particular to make bigger gains than could be expected if he was fighting just one of the Mercedes drivers.

“It is not just a matter of the number of race wins – but about how you can put pressure on those ahead of us,” said Arrivabene.

“We must take into account that Rosberg and Hamilton will take points from each other, because otherwise it would be tough.

"The championship is long and we have had several unfortunate days – while they have had only one bad occasions.

“But if it happens then it is very easy to climb up the points table. We have to believe and have to be positive.

“In Canada we were not far from Mercedes. In Baku, we looked to be in bad shape but then we got on the podium. To me it would be fine to win the title with one win, just as Keke Rosberg did.”

When asked therefore if Hamilton could in theory be an ally in helping Ferrari close down Rosberg, Arrivabene said: “Why not?

"The perfect thing would be that first he is an ally, but then of course he will become the main opponent. There are still 13 races to go, the season is still very long.”