find a driver willing to play second fiddle to leclerc. The team must come first.
There must be some young drivers who don't make so many mistakes as Vettel ? In the last few years, he hasn't stop spinning, coming off the track and crashing in other cars !
This is a repost : "Mick Schumacher finished only 12th in the 2019 F2 Championship. That hardly qualifies him for a seat in F1. If he improves in years to come, that may be different."
There aren't many drivers that will take the Number 2 seat to Leclerc, unless they are new and/ or younger. Alonso and Kimi will deff not take the Second seat...
Vettel still has speed and he is not the most urgent change. Fix the management first. Fix the attitude of everyone on the team. Hire more Germans or Brits if you have to. Ferrari F1 suffers the same malaise that the entire Italian car industry suffers from.
Vettel has not more speed and is less reliable than his novice team mate that earns peanuts for doing the same (if not a better) job. And to make things worse, he refuses to follow team orders and now not happy with destroying his own car he crashes with the other. He´s the living proof of how much a German can be a real pain in the ass.
We don´t necessarily need a #2 to Leclerc. The guy still has a lot to learn or even worse, he could become a flop. We need someone who delivers, who is not a prima donna and is not too expensive. Then who is number 1 or 2 will be decided on the track.
When assessing the Ferrari duo, it's worth to bear in mind that Vettel is paid 12 times more than Leclerc. (35M€ against 2.9M€). I know which one is better value for money !!!
I'm not in love with Vettel...I just don't see an available replacement that will guarantee the improvement we want. And I don't see the driver as the big problem right now....I see the team management all the way from the pit crew to the very top, as the problem. And much of that is because the whole FIAT empire is a management and financial house of cards. And it begins with all the giant checks they have to write each year to the members of the Agnelli family...the amount is so large it leaves almost zero money for product development in their automobile business. They are very actively looking for a buyer, openly and also behind the scenes. The only reason Lancia and Alfa and Maserati and Fiat even make a pretense of doing business is to create an illusion that it is a viable company worth buying. When the fire sale comes, Chrysler will go its own way and be left making Jeeps, trucks, vans, and a couple of muscle car nostalgia pieces...a nice easy money pickup for China, giving it a US manufacturing base for political reasons. The Italian side of the business will be sold for parts...factory space, design facilities, the real estate assets. The French and Germans and Africans (backed by China) will swoop down, use the space to make electric cars, and the rest will go for scrap. Ferrari will survive as a stand alone brand but the product will lose all relationship to its history. Which is why replacing Vettel is not the big priority.
Ferrari is in fact an independent company, quite distinct from Chrysler-FIAT Automotive now. The future of CFA shouldn't impact Ferrari at all.
The biggest priority is getting the car right, of course. When the car is right, even Vettel can win. But unless he makes an unexpected come back next year, he shouldn´t be kept: he´s just not worth that money and that BS. If there are not other options, then they can always hire a #2 for Leclerc: at least it would be less expensive. And about FIAT, well, after saving Chrysler´s ass and now with the merge with Peugeot they´re becoming the 4th biggest automaker in the world, so their situation is more complex than you think.
Actually, what Ferrari really needs is a proven number 1 driver-- that's what Vettel (supposedly) was. Leclerc show great promise and definitely has speed, but that's it for now. To some extent, Leclerc hasn't become the de facto number 1 driver at Ferrari because of his own merits, but largely because of Vettel's inexcusable errors and failures. Sorry if I'm not jumping on the Leclerc bandwagon yet... Personally, I would love to see Ricciardo at Ferrari. Really hope he can get out of his contract with Renault (I bet his agent and lawyers are working overtime and burning the midnight oil on this issue) and join Ferrari next season. Then Leclerc and Ricciardo can duke it out for the number one spot. My money is on Ricciardo. He's hungry, fast, fun to watch in race mode, and has all the talent in the world. But even better, he has that Ferrari fire and passion burning in him and it shows in his driving. And it doesn't hurt that he's a likeable and damn funny dude to boot...
Vettel is consistent in error and in-ability to drive a car well, that does not suit him. He and Kimi are quite similar in that reguard. Its quite simple, even with youth and pressure - Charles is simply faster. Something that Vettel fails to admit to himself. The team impacted Charles directly more so that Vettel. His errors are the symptom of all the issues he has - unable to deal with pressure and lack of flexibility/talent to drive around issues and poor wheel to wheel skill compared to his team mate, and Ricci among others. Kimi offered no real competion but Charles and Ricci did and do.