Ferrari’s love affair with Sebastian Vettel – and vice versa – is in high gear as the German’s shares at Maranello soar in the aftermath of his shock victory in the recent Malaysian Grand Prix, and mutual admiration prevails in the corridors of the sport’s most successful team.
Last week, after a morning at work in the simulator, Vettel met all the staff of the Gestione Sportiva who had assembled together to celebrate the Sepang victory.
Vettel endeared himself even more to them by choosing to address them in Italian, and said, “[Malaysia] was a very emotional moment. I have won many races, but the first one with Ferrari is very, very special.”
“On Sunday night I wanted to celebrate with the mechanics and I said to them, ‘thanks a lot, but I want to be one of you, no more no less. I am part of the team and, even if out on track, I’m alone, I know that really I never am, because I am always with you. I want to thank you for giving me a nice car and I think, in fact I know, that we will experience many more great moments together.”
Team prinicpal Maurizio Arrivabene was also present, passing on greetings from absent Kimi Raikkonen, who according to the team boss had been in touch by phone from Finland, as he is there for his son’s christening.
Arrivabene reminded everyone that this win was only the starting point and that the team had to continue working with the utmost dedication and concentration to progress even further, “I think that, the: forza Ferrari! from Seb over the radio immediately after taking the chequered flag, was not just for the achievement of a childhood dream, but also for memories of the moments spent with another great champion, who won so much for Ferrari, namely Michael and above all there was the joy of being there with all of you.”
“You have been here for such a long time and you deserve it,” added the team boss.
Immediately after the triumph in the heat of Malaysia, Vettel was unrestrained in praise of his new team, “Grande gara, bella macchina! (A great race and a beautiful car). It was amazing to look down from the podium and see the mechanics, the engineers, the whole team and listen to the German and Italian anthems.”
“The atmosphere in the team has always been great, but it’s just getting better and better. For today, the important thing is for all of us to enjoy this moment together and celebrate. I did not swap teams that much in the past, so winning for a new team is always a relief.”
“Since I joined Ferrari I felt incredibly welcome and together we have worked to improve things. The potential, as I always said, is huge, it’s good to see what a step forward we did over the winter.”
“There were a lot of changes in the background which never make things easy, but everyone saw the positives of that,” declared Vettel on the occasion of his 40th grand prix victory which also happened to end a near two year victory drought for Ferrari.
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