Maurizio Arrivabene believes Ferrari's double retirement in Mexico should serve as a "good lesson" for the team if it wants to challenge Mercedes in 2016.

Ferrari suffered its worst weekend of the season in Mexico, the first time neither red car had been classified in a race since the 2006 Australian Grand Prix. Kimi Raikkonen retired after another collision with Valtteri Bottas, while Sebastian Vettel crashed out after an uncharacteristically messy grand prix which started with a puncture on lap one.

Team boss Arrivabene is refusing to criticise either driver for their performances and says it is the sort of weekend which proves the character of a team.

"During the course of this season we have touched the sky; today we touched the bottom," Arrivabene said in Mexico. "This is a good lesson for all of us, preparing ourselves and the character of the team for next year.

"I don't want to blame Kimi in one way, I don't want to blame Seb in the other way. We don't have to excuse, and they don't have to excuse -- we are a team, this is my answer."

Speaking of the Raikkonen and Bottas clash, the second in three races, he said: "In Russia it happened, it's happened here -- it's Formula One. The most important thing is no-one got injured. It's an accident and it's part of the show, I don't want to blame anyone."

Vettel's early puncture meant he spent the majority of the race out of the points, and was later lapped by both Mercedes drivers. The German complained about having to let Lewis Hamilton through at one stage because he felt he had superior pace.

Arrivabene thinks Ferrari can take positives from the pace it showed during the grand prix, even if it was never challenging for a spot on the podium.

"The race pace looked very, very good today. I was watching the timing and the pace was very, very good. We were a bit concerned about the weather because if it rained it was a potential problem but I was happy with the pace."