Maurizio Arrivabene says Ferrari’s double retirement in the Formula 1 Mexican Grand Prix serves as a lesson for next year, when it hopes to run Mercedes closer.

Kimi Raikkonen suffered his second successive retirement when he collided with Valtteri Bottas, breaking his right-rear suspension. Sebastian Vettel picked up a puncture in first-corner contact with Daniel Ricciardo, spun in the esses and later crashed out at the same spot. It meant Ferrari, which has been the second quickest team this term, suffered its first double retirement since the 2006 Australian Grand Prix.

“During the course of this season, we touched the sky and on Sunday we touch the bottom,” said Ferrari team boss Arrivabene. “This is a good lesson for all of us. It prepares ourselves and the character of the team for next year. I don’t want to blame Kimi one way, I don’t want to blame Seb the other way. We don’t have to make excuses and they don’t have to make excuses. We are a team.”

Despite the result, Arrivabene said there were some positives to take out of the weekend.

“I had already seen on Saturday how this team can react to difficulties, having had to replace both engine and gearbox [on Raikkonen’s car] in so little time,” he said. “On Sunday, the race pace was very, very good. I was watching the timing and the pace was very good.”