The Red War: Leclerc vs. Vettel

I would say that no Ferrari driver trusts the pit wall strategists. Some of Seb’s issues can be attributed to feeling that he has to do everything perfectly to win. And clearly they’re starting to dent Charles’ confidence, too. The pit wall have brought that upon themselves - and that is where Binotto has to step in more effectively: they can’t set expectations and then go back on them when (as may often be the case) the reality of the race renders the plan impractical.

 

Vettel is many things but he´s not stupid, at this point he must already know that his ass is on fire. He doesn´t seem fast enough to constantly beat Leclerc, so it seems that he deliberately is looking for a confrontation. At worse, if it doesn´t work, he´ll have an excuse to quit.

 

You guys are forgetting the cars again. After the HV6 turbo rule change, MB kicked everyone's @$$ by burning oil and all the rest. It took YEARS for SF to try and catch up. The cars were dogs and tended more to the chassis side than power. Then the cars got the power but not the down force. Now they have the down force too. Seb had been slogging through this the whole time. He has screwed up and won big, all with different cars. But he _thrives_ in a high down force car. Now that he has both, he has won. Big surprise? Not for a 4x world champion. What happened in the past 2 races is Seb giving Charles a lesson in the racecraft/strategy side of the sport. And yes, the dirty tricks competitive side as well. If Charles is such a gift to SF and a racing god, why couldn't he catch Seb after the start? Because he wasn't fast enough. Maybe it's a little more scary to push a car at full fuel level rather than superleggera quali trim? But in the end, I think Seb pushed too hard and caused the K failure. Either that or someone touched something they shouldn't have in the pit stop and fried the unit. Hehe I consider Charles to be a drift meister and more aggressive than Seb before the aero upgrades but that is due to driving style, not ability. Now that it's more even and Seb has taken a lot of crap from all sides, he is pushing back. I agree that Binotto needs to work this out but they should also talk about long term strategy. I expected Seb to swap back after all the talk about the tow and the undercut in Singapore. But if the other driver makes a good start and takes advantage of the the tow, the first driver needs to respond competitively. They left out the fuel weight, K unit, and wake turbulence from the "swap" agreement. That's what Binotto needs to fix, and Charles needs to remember all of that when he's blasting to pole. Seeing Seb scorch that start and start to pull away pounding laps looked just like the RB days of old. Until of course, it broke. Imagine how it would have sounded in a V12? Glorious

 

Agreed.

However, Seb was not pushed out at Red Bull - it was his own calculated decision. (IIRC, his announcement at the 2014 Japanese GP that he would move to Ferrari came as a surprise to both Horner and Marko.)

Seb is a very intelligent guy indeed. He has probably always understood that his 4 WDCs in a row were the result of very lucky circumstances (full and unconditional support of his team - even in times of "Multi 21" - and the genius of Adrian Newey at the peak of its powers).

Also, he didn't want a repeat of the 2014 season, where a young guy named Daniel swiped the floor with him. Instead, he chose to move to Ferrari "in order to emulate his idol Michael".... At Ferrari, he made sure that he created an environment that would never push him out of his comfort zone. His buddy Kimi (whom I like a lot!) was the ideal team mate for him, as he never was a direct threat to Seb.

 

Vettel put nearly 5 seconds on Leclerc, and this very talented guy had no answer expect asking for the promised swap. Remember that discussing an old man...

 

CL can take care of SV on track.

F needs to be consistent either by letting them race or letting SV know he's nr. 2.
Alternating preferential treatment only prolongs the inevitable.

 

Firstly if LEC has lit a fire under VETs arse, well good. "Driver of the day in Singapore and Russia" is a good thing.

Secondly due to regrettable 1H 2019 we now have 2H 2019 in which we cannot really win the WDC or WCC.

So SF could just let them race (with no 'you tow me here , I'll tow you there" malarkey) for the remaining races, maybe even for the first two of 2020 as well.
Whoever has the most points after those races gets to be number one for the 2020 championship assault.

Personally, I don't give a **** which one of our drivers earns that number one spot but in a tactical sport we need a Bottas type wingman. I was at Monza last year, I was watching the TV on Sunday. THAT **** WORKS.

All that said, I am aware of the march of time and I think that even if Seb wins the 2020 WDC the number one button should be handed over the LEC and VET's contract not renewed. He retires a 5 times WDC, a Ferrari WDC and we hire Lando or George or the current F2 hotshots to back up (the then established and experienced) LEC.

 

+1

+2

+3 although he was completely justified on this occasion IMO. With his accent, the whining is particularly grating.

+4 Props to Bino for sorting out the preordained order via pitting strategy. In the end didn't matter with the MGU failure.

+5

 

Binnotto needs to work his magic to keep the team from imploding. Expelliarmus!

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Seb was trashing Charles pace wise first 8 laps sure. Whether or not he was like a bat out of hell to prevent Charles from gaining his position back at the expense of tire management keeping car in form etc for later stages in the race I have no clue. Because I haven't really seen that type of pace from Seb this year otherwise, to be that much faster

Same for the undercut, I don't really know because in past races Ferrari has failed to see the window of opportunity for boxing only to decide 1-2-3 laps later "oh okay let us pit now"

Either way IMO it does seem confusing as to which driver Ferrari is trying to support, sometimes it seems like Charles sometimes it seems like Seb although we haven't had too many opportunities to witness this because either Seb DNF or Charles DNF or they aren't 1-2

I just want Ferrari 1-2. For whatever reason it felt like once the drivers made their way through turn 2 on lap 1 it was not going to be our race, and ultimately we went from 1-2 to 3 and DNF....

 

All WDC are ruthless.

 

Jenson Button ?
Mika Hakkinnen?
Damon Hill ?

Possibly the better of those more ruthless !

 

I can already see how Ferrari will lose next years championship:

Actually finally have the best car in the field but allow it all to be lost at the final race because they can't keep either of their drivers under control and Mercedes will make bottas the lap dog from day 1.

Seb was completely right to do what he did in Russia.

 

With the graciousness of Charles to help him overcome is 2nd row grid position.

 

Vettels start was far better. he'd have passed him anyhow

 

With the gloves well and truly off now can expect some fireworks ahead.

 

uh no! Agree he had a good start but no way he would have gotten past if Charles defended the position. Seb would not have been able to get to the inside in front of Lewis. Of course in this scenario I could have seen Seb trying to force the issue at T1 and taking both him and Charles out.

 

This^^ gifted tow for Vettel. Won’t address further the stupidity of “no driver is bigger than Ferrari” lecture from the idiot Seb and utter hypocrisy contained lol

 

LEC didn’t defend because he didn’t expect VET to attack.

 

To me, support 'at first' whoever is at Pole. Then adjust given the conditions. Some would say this exactly what SF did at Sochi, I don't think Vettel not letting Lec past after being asked 5 times and 8 laps was he was scared he would lose position to Hamilton. Just me...

That said, let em race for the rest of the year, none of it matters anyway. Let's see who truly is #1 with no team orders, etc. I truly believe it will be obvious by the end of the year, who is the "better driver" and hence receive preferential treatment. Let the numbers and driving do all the talking.

 

The problem is Binotto has to put too much up with Nicholas Todt’s interfering. That guy needs to get the hell out of SF and leave Charles to grow alone as Vettel did.

 

+1 well said

 

No. Chuck isn't that stupid. And that's exactly why this didn't come to tears, teammates or not.

They're both mature enough to understand that it is a long race.

Regarding Seb allowing Chuck past, why should he? He made a brilliant start and put up a gap to Chuck. Any slowing down would have sacrificed huge amounts of time to the Mercedes.

All for naught, anyway. Bring on Japan.

 

So you don't think Seb got in front because Leclerc towed him and then left a door open to get past (because 'Chuck isn't that stupid' to try and defend)?