Arrivabene: The way to recover is to push like crazy

Sebastian Vettel has had a troubled weekend so far in Russia, as Ferrari pull out all the stops to challenge the unrelenting dominance of Mercedes.

After early-season reliability trouble and then a controversial clash with teammate Kimi Raikkonen in China, the German then struck more reliability problems on Friday in Russia. Now a changed gearbox means he will serve a five-position demotion on the Sochi grid.

According to La Repubblica, boss Maurizio Arrivabene had warned before Russia that Ferrari had deliberately entered dangerous ground for 2016 in a bid to catch the pace of dominant Mercedes.

"When you're behind, the way to recover is to push like crazy," the Italian is quoted as saying. "And to push like crazy you need performance before reliability. So this winter we said: we are aiming for speed and then we will look for reliability."

La Gazzetta dello Sport, however, claims Ferrari has confirmed in Russia that the damage to Vettel's gearbox may actually be traced back to the first-corner clash two weeks ago.

It probably means one rival less for runaway championship rival Nico Rosberg to worry about this weekend.