Despite having a car that appears at times to be a match for Mercedes, Ferrari has failed to capitalise and been beaten by Nico Rosberg in all three races so far.

In China, its chances of going for the win were dashed at the first corner when Sebastian Vettel collided with Kimi Raikkonen after he took avoiding action against Daniil Kvyat.

With Marchionne having flown in for the race, Ferrari team principal Arrivabene admitted that his boss was left with little to smile about.

"He knows motor racing, so of course he was not happy," he explained. "As I was not happy. He saw the race but in certain circumstances, what can you do? You can say, many, many things.

"There is nothing you can do, not the team nor with the car. When things happen like this you have to accept it, but of course he was not happy.

"By the way if he was happy, I would be asking to myself: is this a real president or what?"

Podium top step

Despite having finished on the podium in the first three races, Arrivabene said that he has had enough of seeing Mercedes coming out on top.

"We touch all the different stairs of the podium – and now I have had enough. It is better to touch the highest position of the podium.

"Is it bad luck? Of course it is frustrating when things happen and you know you have a good car. But most probably we need to continue to persist and sooner or later – I hope sooner – the first stair of the podium will come.

"The car is good actually and today we demonstrated that the car was quite strong, and the strategy was perfect I have to say.

"So we turn the page and look forward to the future, being a bit more positive. But we are not there. We need to be there."

Beating Mercedes

When asked what he thought would have been possible against Mercedes and Red Bull if it had been a clean race, Arrivabene said: "I don't want to talk about Red Bull or the others. I think today in normal circumstance it would be good to have a very, very good chance to win."