Ferrari boss: We're getting closer to Mercedes

Montreal - Ferrari can look on the bright side despite missing victory in Sunday's (June 12) Canadian Grand Prix.

That is the unified message of Sebastian Vettel as well as the Maranello team's boss, even though Maurizio Arrivabene had initially been critical of a strategy mistake that arguably cost the German driver the Montreal win.

Good performance

It has been a difficult last few races for Ferrari, with the highly-critical Italian media saying the team had even fallen behind Red Bull in the packing order.

Vettel told a reporter for Italy's authoritative La Gazzetta dello Sport: "Sometimes it seems like the Italian press is our biggest opponent, so maybe you can write something nice now." 

Read: Canadian GP: Hamilton dedicates superb win to Muhammad Ali

Vettel had refused to be critical of Sunday's strategy error that left Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton to cruise to victory, and boss Arrivabene agrees that Ferrari should be feeling upbeat.

When asked how Ferrari will now move on to this weekend's (June 19) inaugural race in Azerbaijan, Arrivabene said: "With humility, but also with confidence.

“I was happy to take risks. Otherwise what’s the point? It’s boring. We’re here to push” #F1 #CanadianGP https://t.co/Yweifj5dsX

— Formula 1 (@F1) June 12, 2016

Arrivabene added: "We have responded to the problems of Spain and Monaco and understand the car better now, the gap to Mercedes shrinks, but it's still not enough."

Poor weekend for Raikkonen

Finally, amid swirling rumours about the identity of Vettel's teammate for 2017, Arrivabene was asked about another particularly poor weekend for Kimi Raikkonen.

The Italian said: "Kimi had problems this weekend, which happens in racing. Sometimes the weekend goes perfectly, at other times not."