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Whe is so common at Ferrari: everything is announced with a smile. This is how the explanation of the “joint” decision made by Scuderia and Sebastian Vettel to go their separate ways after 2020. The friendship remains and, of course, the eternal memory of the great moments of a five-year shared journey with 14 victories for Vettel in the cult model of Formula 1. There was no “special reason,” team boss Mattia Binotto said, other than realizing that time was up. Time for? To achieve the respective goals of finally becoming world champion again.
With the explanation, Ferrari, halfway there, elegantly surrounded the reality of Formula 1 driving. The free translation of the snake culminated in a correct verbal line: neither the team nor the driver believed that the other had the quality to realize the dream. The promising bond that started in 2015 has lost what is first and foremost essential for motor sport survival and then the foundation for success.
The simple Vettel couldn’t help but describe in the naked message in the first sentence of his statement the crucial crack in these fragile relationships: “To achieve the best possible result in this sport, it is vital that all parties are perfect. Working together in harmony. “Reading a dispute about this would be wrong. The dispute over the matter is part of daily life in the boundary operation on the higher routes. Leftovers fly internally. That can be regulated. There is only one thing that cannot be saved : loss of confidence.
Ferrari team boss Binotto had been doubting Vettel for months. At the latest, the contract extension for Charles Leclerc revealed the team’s change in strategy. Binotto tied Monegasco, a decade younger and more talented, with his team for another four years in December and awarded him a sharp raise. The disempowerment could not be demonstrated more demonstratively. Ferrari is going to Leclerc. And he decidedly declared that the Vettel case was of secondary importance. In Formula 1, in competitive sports, in real life, the apparently most important ones are served first, everything is aligned with them.
However, the flaw is older. He was recognizable from the outside for the first time in 2018 in qualifying for the home race at Monza. It was about pole position between Ferrari and Mercedes. Instead of offering Lewis Hamilton’s challenger Vettel the direct flow in the first chicane, Heppenheimer donated his acceleration aid to his (slower average) teammate Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn took the leap to the top, Vettel had to take a risk as a third immediately after the start to win the Grand Prix. He collided with Hamilton and finally finished fourth. English won. The paddock rubbed his eyes. Ferrari disarmed itself.
With an unusually large number of driving errors, Vettel contributed greatly to its degradation in 2018. This was not only due to the poor quality of the race car. At no time in the past five years has the Scuderia fulfilled its claim to deliver the best average race car in a season. The drivers had to go to the border. Even top drivers like Ayrton Senna or Michael Schumacher often lost control in such conditions. But Ferrari rookie Leclerc almost managed to leave Vettel behind in 2019. At least in qualifying, when it comes to squeezing everything out of the car. Vettel was unable to cope with the racing behavior of the racing car. He lacked confidence. At the Grand Prix, Red Bull’s sports director said, Helmut Marko, this newspaper, said that the four-time world champion was better, more consistent than Leclerc. But the spectacular appearance of the new, his undisguised aspiration to expel the best dog, affected everyone who moved Ferrari: the management, the group’s management and the Italian media: Forza Leclerc!
