Tag: carlos sainz

F1 pit stop – we’re off!

On By ChristofferIn F1, News1 Comment

The F1 season 2025 has finally started! We’ve been waiting for it and of course, now for the seventh year, Netflix has contributed to the build-up by launching the latest season of “Drive to Survive” a week ago (I’m not through it yet…). Anyway the new F1 season started today if you read this on the day of publication, and if so, you may just have seen Lando Norris win the first GP of the season in Melbourne, allowing a McLaren driver to lead the Drivers’ championship for the first time since 1992! If you look back on the practice sessions of the last weeks that was hardly a surprise, and Norris may well stay at the top far longer than just until next race.

Whatever happens, 2025 is the last season with F1 in its current form before some major changes in 2026. More on that later this year but it will affect fuels, engines and downforce, with signs that cars will not be as fast as in 2025. Therefore, we should enjoy the current season for as long as it lasts, especially since it promises to be even more exciting than last year, which itself was of course the most exciting season in many years!

Things have started well for Norris, who may well be the title favourite this season!

Starting with the driver line-up, the biggest news of the season is of course something that was announced already last season, namely Lewis Hamilton taking Carlos Sainz’ seat at Ferrari, with the latter joining Williams. Lewis is of course a true legend with seven world championship titles under his belt, but he will still have his work cut out for him, not only in comparison to Charles Leclerc but actually also to his predecessor who had a great season in 2024.

We know now that Sainz had the choice to join Alpine or Kick-Sauber in addition to Williams. Kick-Sauber is set to become Audi in 2026 and would perhaps have been most promising in that regard, seen from the outside. That Sainz still opted for Williams hopefully says a lot about the potential the team has this year. In the first, chaotic Melbourne GP he didn’t manage to capitalize on that, but his teammate Alex Albon finishing fourth may have been an early indication.

I think everyone wish that things go well for Sainz at Williams!

Lewis’ departure from Mercedes also meant Toto Wolf as team principal had a seat to fill, with quite some pressure to get it right. Toto, in my view wisely, chose not to go for Sainz or another more experienced driver, but rather for perhaps the most exciting of the five newcomers this season. The Italian Kimi Antonelli is only 18 years old and has been a part of the Mercedes Junior Team since 2019. Last year was his first in F2, he won several races and now gets the chance to drive for Mercedes in F1. That’s quite a development for a teenager who only got his driver’s license a few months ago… Together with George Russell who is now Mercedes’ first driver, that gives the team not only the youngest, but perhaps also the most exciting driver line-up.

This kid just got his driving license…

The other newcomers include 19-year old Englishman Oliver Bearman from the Ferrari academy driving for Haas, the 22-year old Australian Jack Dohan on Alpine, from the team’s own academy and the son of the MC legend Mick Dohan, and the 20-year old Brazilian Gabriele Bortoleto who won the F2 championship last year and now drives for Kick-Sauber. Last but not least is 20-year old Isack Hadjar who was the runner up in F2 last year and drives for Red Bull’s junior team Racing Bulls. Hadjar is French-Algerian, meaning he will be the first F1 driver ever from the African continent, outside of South Africa.

This means that only Aston Martin and McLaren have an unchanged driver line-up in 2025. Haas has replaced both their drivers, with Bearman coming in alongside Esteban Ocon, who lost his Alpine seat to Jack Dohan. None of the Kick-Sauber drivers, Bottas and Zhou, will drive in F1 this season, replaced by Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg from Haas. Most importantly however, Liam Lawson has graduated from Racing Bulls to Red Bull, being replaced by Hadjar, and now drives for Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen.

All newcomers crashed out of today’s rainy Melbourne GP – except Antonelli

Lawson is a 23-year old New Zealander who during last season was Red Bull’s reserve driver and came in to replace Daniel Ricciardo at the junior team Racing Bulls (previously called Alpha Tauri) when he broke his hand mid-season. Lawson has driven a total of 11 GP’s, finishing ninth at best, but proving he’s got the speed on a couple of occasions last year. And that’s probably a good thing, since it’s still a bit of a mystery how fast the Red Bull car really is.

McLaren of course won the Constructors’ title last year and clearly had the fastest car in the latter part of the season. At least at the beginning of this season, that still looks to be the case. Behind McLaren, we’ll have to see if Red Bull still has any kind of edge on Ferrari and Mercedes. It’s no secret that the car has a narrow window where it performs at 100%, and the question will be whether that window has become wider or not. If not, it’s difficult to see how Verstappen will be able to hold on to his title, and how the team could win back the Constructor’s title. And looking at the other teams, if the first race and Carlos Sainz’s experience is anything to go by, Williams could be the positive surprise of this season!

Flavio is back – the other team bosses better take notice!

Before we close, it’s also great to see that F1’s leading playboy is back! Flavio Briatore doesn’t need much of an introduction, he was of course team head at Renault in the 90’s during Schumi’s time, when the team was still called Renault, and returned to the team in the middle of last season. Back in the day, he helped Renault win three Constructors’ titles and four Drivers’ titles with Schumi, but was then banned from F1 in 2008 following “Crashgate”, when he was accused of instructing Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash, such as to help his teammate Fernando Alonso to win the race.

Flavio was later acquitted, and none of this prevented him, on a personal level, from having affairs both with Naomi Campbell and Heidi Klum, with whom he has a child. Briatore now returns to Alpine as “executive advisor”, but few doubt he’s running the team. And that’s a good thing, because not only is Briatore widely respected, he also has more charisma than all the other team heads taken together!

F1 pit stop: could it be?

On By ChristofferIn F1, News3 Comments

We’re around a third into the 2024 F1 season and until a couple of races ago, it did look like it would again be a very one-sided affair, with Max in his Red Bull having claimed all pole positions so far, winning 5 races, and looking unstoppable on the way to his fourth consecutive world championship title. 

And then came Emilia Romagna in Italy, which Verstappen did win but not quite like before, where Max wasn’t even close to the podium. Ever so slowly a bit of excitement has returned – what has happened? To recap for those who may have gotten tired of following this every other week (you have my sympathy), it’s really two teams that have made notable progress and have gotten a bit too close to comfort for Red Bull. 

If they fired him to make him faster, it worked

The first one is Ferrari, currently second in the championship and the team that so far had been closest to Red Bull. And with two great drivers, it’s both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc who at least to some extent give Verstappen a run for the money. Sainz’s improving results showed a strong correlation with Ferrari’s decision to sack him, replacing him with Lewis Hamilton, in 2025 and could perhaps be seen as his pride having been hurt. Personally, I think it’s more a case of a great driver in an improved car. 

Leclerc’s results seem to validate that theory and at no time more so than last week in Monaco when he won his home race for the first time, having previously not even been on the podium in the Principality. Leclerc is one of a few thousand Monegasques so this was also the first time a native won the very special Monaco race, and did so in quite a dominant way. 

The second team that has come closer to Red Bull, perhaps even more so than Ferrari, is of course McLaren. Here Lando Norris has led the charge and nowhere more so than in Miami where he won his first race of the season, his fourth podium for the season. Oscar Piastri is also finding more speed in his car, with a first podium finish in Monaco where he was second. 

I’m willing to bet this wasn’t the lsat time we see Lando on P1

So what about Red Bull? Well, when Norris won in Miami in the first days of May, Max finished second and Perez fourth. And then in Monaco, Verstappen wasn’t on pole for the first time this year, starting six. Perez, also a first for this year, was however eliminated in Q1, starting impossibly far back. Of course Monaco is a very special race and not really indicative of things to come, but the team confessed to the car having a problem when driven on curbs which obviously penalized lap times, and Max also hit a wall in qualifying, ruining his chances of starting higher up. For a driver never making mistakes, that’s telling.

I may be grasping for straws here and of course Red Bull is still the leading team this season with a very healthy lead both in the team and driver rankings. The most likely scenario is no doubt still that Max and Red Bull win both titles. But Perez’ renewed performance dip is worrying, and there’s little doubt that Verstappen feels both McLaren and Ferrari breathing down his neck more than in the first part of the season. In that sense, the coming races will be very interesting, especially Barcelona on 23 June, since that is the next real driving course.

It’s all hugs and smiles for now – hopefully it’ll stay that way

Further down the field, not much has changed. Unfortunately Mercedes hasn’t found the same speed as Ferrari and McLaren, and now rank clearly behind the two. Further down, Alonso does what he can in the Aston Martin car, with the team is a solid fifth in the championship. Even Stroll manages to score a few points here and there, knowing that Aston Martin no doubt has the most unbalanced driver line-up of all…). As for the rest of the teams, there really isn’t much to mention.

We’ll see over the next races how this pans out. Can Max preserve his lead and for the team’s sake, can Perez find his speed again? Will Leclerc be able to build on Monaco and keep that competitiveness over the coming races? Or will Lando Norries be the hungrier one, extending his nice podium run? I guess the season does have some excitement in it, after all!

PS. Make sure you don’t miss the documentary “Senna” on Netflix, a nice portrait of the man who was perhaps the greatest of them all. It also serves as a reminder of how very different the F1 sport was 30 years ago. Not to take anything away from the drivers nowadays, but the level of courage of those guys… You’ll see what I mean if you watch it!

F1 season 2024 – the calm before the storm?

On By ChristofferIn F1, NewsLeave a comment

If you read this on the Sunday of publication, it means the F1 season 2024 is only one week away with the engines revving up for the first time on March 2 in Bahrain. 24 races are planned this year, making it the longest season ever if they all take place. The season will end not far from where it starts, in Abu Dhabi, in early December, and as I finish this post, the last day of official testing is already underway!

In a way, the 2024 season is shaping up to be a repeat of 2023. No one really doubts that Max Verstappen will add another world champion title to his and Red Bull’s belt, at least not yet, all drivers are in the same seat as last year, and all teams are the same, except in name. And yet, there have been two pieces of news before the season kicks off that have made the headlines: the first was Günther Steiner being fired as team head of Haas, and the second that Lewis Hamilton is leaving Mercedes for Ferrari at the end of the season.

The news were certainly unexpected!

To start with the Lewis, this is of course both surprising and exciting. Surprising since Hamilton has been part of Mercedes since what feels like forever and is in reality 11 years, a very long time in F1. He’s of course one of the most successful drivers of all time, but we also know of the difficulties Mercedes have seen in the last seasons, probably making a change feel like a good option, both for Lewis and the team.

I think we all look forward to seeing Lewis in a red car from Maranello, and we should also be thankful that the news was this rather than that of him retiring, which could also have been the case. It does leave the question however why the announcement comes now, given it’s a year away, but it’s probably as simple as once the decision was taken, the news would have come out anyway, and no one really doubts that Lewis is professional enough not to be distracted by this in his last Mercedes season.

Yet another reason for announcing the move now if of course also to leave Carlos Sainz enough time to find a new seat. Ferrari have very little reason not to be pleased with Sainz, who together with Charles Leclerc has formed on of the best driving duos the last years in a car that hasn’t always been as good as it should be. The decision to replace Carlos with Lewis cannot have been an easy one, especially since Lewis probably won’t hang on for the next five-six years. So far, it’s unclear if, and if so, for what team Carlos will drive in 2025, but I’d bbet a lot on him doing all he can in 2024 to prove Ferrari wrong!

“What the f* Gene? It wasn’t my fault!”

The other piece of pre-season news was that Günther Steiner, one of the most carismatic profiles of F1, is no longer at the helm of Haas. He’s being replaced by Ayao Komatsu who’s been an engineer with the team since 2016. Let’s just say that I’d be very surprised if a Japanese engineer reaches the same level of flamboyancy as good ol’ Günther… He for one isn’t happy about the decision, although he’s made clear that Gene Haas as owner is in his right to do whatever he likes.

To an outside observer, it seems pretty obvious that Haas’s issues have very little to do with Steiner as a team head, and a lot to do with Haas suffering from too small a budget and resources to keep up, and thus have a car that simply wasn’t fast enough. I’d be very surprised if Komatsu-San can do a better job result-wise than Günther, but I guess time will tell! If the testing that just ended is anything to go by, it doesn’t look good, since both Haas cars ended last…

Coming back to this year’s season, I really can’t think of a year when there was as little movement between drivers and teams as now, given we’re at zero. Daniel Ricciardo is now confirmed as permanent and not just a replacement for Nicky de Vries, next to Yoki Tsunoda in the second AlphaTauri, this year renamed to RB. Those who follow F1 know that Ricciardo’s career has been rather shaky in the last years and not characterized by the best decisions, so let’s hope this works out for him.

Whether first or last on the grid, Sauber will certainly be seen!

Next to that, the only piece of news on the team and driver side is that what used to be the Sauber team and then became Alfa Romeo Racing is now again called Sauber (or rather Kick Sauber, with Kick being the new sponsor). For someone living less than 10 kms from the factory here in Switzerland that’s pretty cool, especially since the team has managed to hang in there since 1993, and has nurtured some of the best drivers out there, including Kimi Räikkönen and Sergio Perez, among others.

Of course all 2024 cars are new, but technical changes are largely absent, knowing that 2025 will be the last year with the current V6 engines. We’re not fully clear on what will replace them, but let me stick my neck out and say that it will probably not be rumbling V8’s…

With such calm before the season starts, will there be a bit more storm when the lights turn to green next Sunday? Let’s indeed hope so, since yet another season with Red Bull and Verstappen dominating proceedings as has been the case in the last years would be slightly…. boring? I’ll leave you to guess who was fasted in the last pre-season training session…

Anyone wants to bet against this ending?

F1 pit stop: MAXimizing!

On By ChristofferIn F1, NewsLeave a comment

The European summer has come and gone and as always, it leaves me with a sad feeling, especially since in central Europe, it was a very nice one. Although a passionate skier, I’m no friend of the dark season which will soon be upon us, but that also means we’re entering the final straight of the 2023 F1 season. In my last update just before the summer, fresh out of a bull fight in Madrid as I was at the time, the analogy with the charging bull Fernando Alonso was a rather obvious one. A few months later, it’s clear some things have changed while others have stayed the same. The bull analogy is still working, but the green bull has been replaced by its red cousin, which wasn’t doing too bad at the beginning of the season either.

The red bull, or rather bulls, reign supreme!

The way Red Bull has dominated the 2023 season almost makes you forget the pretty significant updates to the cars we saw before last season, aiming at making the races more exciting, and very much succeeding in doing so last season. This year, Max Verstappen has won 12 of 15 races and been on the podium in all but one. By the time of my last update though, Sergio “Checo” Perez had won in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan, which made me speculate that Perez may, just maybe, be good enough to challenge Max for the title. Well I was wrong, because since early summer, Max’s winning streak has continued while Checo has faded significantly, as has Alonso on Aston Martin. Instead, we’ve seen a slow but steady return to form of three other teams and drivers: Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren.

Looking at them in that order, the biggest change in Maranello is probably that with the arrival of Cédric Vasseur as team head, Ferrari now has a strategy when they start a race, something that seemed to be missing most of last season. Nowhere was this more visible than in the fantastic race in Singapore a week ago, where it was the strategy, next to Carlos’ sublime driving that gave him and Ferrari their first win for the season. The end of the race was the most exciting this year, with Sainz managing to keep his first follower Norris behind him but within DRS distance for something like five laps so that the two chasing Mercedeses that were both quicker wouldn’t be able to pass Norris, and thus threaten himself. It was highly impressive driving, and a very deserved win!

Brilliant driving and a brilliant win for Carlos in Singapore!

Mercedes on their hand have clearly progressed in the last races with Russell and Hamilton still forming one of the best duos among all the teams. They’re also quite close result-wise, with Hamilton still having the edge, being third in the championship. The biggest progress is however to be found at McLaren. Lando Norris still dominates the young Oscar Pilastri, but the latter is progressing fast in his first full season and in the last races, both have enjoyed a car that’s quicker than both Mercedes and Ferrari.

It’s thus pretty clear that Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren are the three teams that will finish second-fourth when we round up the season (but not necessarily in that order). It’s also not impossible that whilst no one will challenge Max for the title, should Checo’s recent difficulties continue, both Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso could challenge him for second place, if all the stars align. That would however require Alonso and the Aston Martin returning to the form of the first half of the season.

Mercedes have clearly improved as the season has progressed

Further down the field it’s especially Alex Albon who continues to surprise positively, managing to regularly place the not-very-fast Williams in the points. He seems to be enjoying his time at Williams, but there are of course limits to how fast the team will ever get. That unfortunately goes for the other teams in the second half as well, with both Alfa Romeo Racing and Haas failing so far to progress in any way. Given the experience in the driver line-up of both teams (Bottas on Alfa Romeo, Hulkenberg and Magnussen on Haas), there’s really no doubt the cars, or rather the development budgets, are the real problem.

Things look somewhat better at Alpine (Renault) whereas they look somewhat worse at AlphaTauri, where Tsunoda swears far more while driving than he collects points. AlphaTauri have also replaced Nyck de Vries with our favorite Aussie Daniel Ricciardo, who without wanting to be mean has a great talent for picking teams on their way down rather than up. With AlphaTauri however there’s only one way to go, and Ricciardo will be there for all of 2024, so maybe, just maybe, things will start to look up both for the team and him again. That’s all relative though, since the chance of AlphaTauri or any of the small teams clinching a podium are all but inexistant.

Ricciardo will need all of his significant neck muscles to win points in the AlphaTauri…

As we enter the last straight of the 2023 season, Red Bull is thus as dominant as ever, and Max is in a league of his own. It’s also obvious that he’s gained a new level of maturity in his driving, being far calmer and, by the looks of it, in perfect harmony with the car. Most probably, the season will end with a Red Bull one-two, since although Checo has had a streak of bad luck and seems to be out of form, it should still be enough to hold on to second place.

The other top teams have come somewhat closer but the difference to Red Bull is still significant, and the question is perhaps not if they catch up this year, but rather if they manage to do so next. It’s interesting to listen to Lewis Hamilton in this regard, being very open about what he still sees as a very wide gap to Red Bull, and the Mercedes car still suffering from issues, notably in terms of rear downforce. Leclerc is just as open in terms of Ferrari’s progress but what still remains a significant gap to Red Bull. That doesn’t really bode well for an exciting 2024 season – but let’s perhaps finish 2023 before we worry about that, and hope we get some excitement for second place in the championship!

F1 pit stop – half time!

On By ChristofferIn F1, NewsLeave a comment

After 13 rounds of the 2022 season we’re into the summer break, with the next race not happening until early September in Max Verstappen’s home country of the Netherlands. It’s thus time to take the temperature on the season so far and doing so, a few things seem pretty obvious already now. Most importantly, I’m not really sticking out my neck by saying that I’m pretty convinced Max will be the relatively uncontested world champion in 2022, for the second time around. However, predicting who will finish on places 2-6 is much harder, almost as hard as guessing if Ferrari will ever get their theme strategy together. These are really the main questions for the second half of the season.

Things are going well for Max!

To start off though, there’s been two big pieces of news on the drivers’ side worth mentioning, especially since it all happened in the last days. Firstly, on Wednesday night ahead of the Hungarian GP, Sebastian Vettel informed Lawrence Stroll, owner of the Aston Martin F1 team, that he’s retiring at the end of the season. Aston would have loved to keep him for another year, especially since Seb has delivered more than what should be possible with the current car, but Lawrence is said to have accepted Seb’s decision, mostly driven by his wish to spend more time with his family. Lawrence didn’t lose any time though and instead picked up the phone to Fernando Alonso whom he knows well, offering him what sounds like a deal too good to say no to. It was all done in five days and Alonso, about to turn 41, will thus step in to Seb’s shoes as a mentor to Lance Stroll and hopefully with a faster Aston car next year.

Neither Alonso nor Lawrence Stroll apparently saw a need to inform Renault/Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer though, who claims he only learnt the news through the official F1 communication. His disappointment is indeed understandable since with Ocon and Alonso, Alpine had a driver pairing helping them to what is currently P4 in the constructor championship, ahead of all teams except for the three big ones. There’s a slight déjà vu here remembering Ricciardo’s move from Renault two years ago when he seemed to be on the way to McLaren, where things have basically gone south every since. Let’s thus hope Fernando knows what he’s doing and that Aston will start performing next year!

Thanks for everything Seb – Ferrari will never forget you!

At the top of the ranking, it’s really all about Max Verstappen. Red Bull started the season on par or sometimes perhaps even slightly behind Ferrari, but the last races have confirmed that they’re back where they were last year, with Perez doing a mighty fine job in spite of being the most obvious “second” driver of all teams, currently ranking P3 in the drivers’ standings. Max leads by a margin of 80 points on Leclerc in second, his driving is as phenomenal as his ego is large (as we know, a combination any good racing driver needs to have!) and in combination with the most professional team on the circuit, it’s really difficult to see how anyone could challenge him, especially since Ferrari insists on giving him the helping hand he doesn’t need through one tactical misstep after the other.

Binotto doesn’t have much to smile about currently…

Hungary was the latest but probably not the last example of tactics going wrong, having everyone except Ferrari F1 boss Binotti scratching their heads. With 30 laps to go and with Leclerc in the lead, the team pitted the car and put him on hard tires. In a way they had no choice as it was too early for softs, but Leclerc hadn’t been complaining about the mid tires and would probably have lost less time staying on them until the softs would have made it until the end. Those are his thoughts, not mine. This is the latest in a series of mistakes, such as for example in Leclerc’s home race in Monaco when Ferrari pitted him at the same time as Sainz, which cost him the win, or Montreal, where the team pitted Sainz rather than Leclerc who was in the lead, again costing him the race. If you add to this mechanical failures and to be fair, also driver mistakes, the second part of the first half of 2022 hasn’t been much to cheer about in Maranello. Binotto however doesn’t see the need to change anything and insists everyone’s happy. So far Leclerc and Sainz don’t say anything, but If things don’t improve quickly in the second half, I very much doubt that will remain the case.

So what about positions 2 to 6? Well, there’s in total only 27 points between Leclerc in second and Lewis Hamilton in sixth, with Perez, Russell and Sainz (in that order) between them. Anyone of the six can thus take second position and if the current trend is anything to go by, it’s definitely Mercedes who are on the way up, and I would tend to put my money on either Russell or Hamilton, together with Perez. Then again, if Ferrari manage to find the form of the first part of the season again, it could also be Leclerc or Sainz. Not much of a conclusion here as you can see, time will tell!

If Russell finishes in P2, will Lewis call it a day?

Except for Alpine Renault who as mentioned are currently in P4, there’s really not much to cheer about for any of the other teams. Alfa Romeo started the season well but don’t seem to get anywhere currently. The same goes for McLaren and especially Daniel Ricciardo who is systematically underperforming Lando Norris, Haas where Mick Schumacher is however starting to show his talent, Aston Martin and Alpha Tauri where not much is happening, and finally Williams who have more speed than last year but still not enough to secure them points in most races. McLaren, Alfa Romeo, Alpha Tauri and Aston Martin should all be on stable footing in terms of their financing, I’m less sure if that’s the case for Haas and Williams, so the second half of the year may well decide if we see them again in 2023. Stay tuned!

F1 action off the track

On By ChristofferIn F1, News2 Comments

In the absence of driving, the F1 circus has still managed to produce some entertainment these last weeks. Mid-May we learnt that Daniel Ricciardo is leaving Renault after only 12 months to join McLaren, and around a week before the real bombshell was dropped, namely that Sebastian Vettel is leaving Ferrari at the end of the season. He will be replaced by Carlos Sainz Jr., and will move on to…. Right. We don’t know, even three weeks after the announcement (and waiting for that piece of news has now made this post a bit old…).

To start with the less surprising news, Daniel Ricciardo leaves Renault after only one season, in a move that made Renault F1 principal Cyril Abiteboul frustrated and speak of a lack of trust. My guess is that Ricciardo is at least as frustrated by a car that last season failed to show any kind of progress over 2018, and you have to believe didn’t give any reason to think it would be better this year. Renault didn’t deliver on everything Ricciardo was promised when joining, and Cyril should thus stop complaining and work on getting his team to perform instead.

Didn’t have much to laugh about lately…

That of course assumes he still has a team, which is far from certain given Renault’s and France’s current status. The French state owns 15% of stumbling mother company Renault, which sacked 15.000 employees last week and has seen demand rock bottom in Covid times. It wouldn’t be a massive surprise that the French state pressures Renault to pull the plug on F1, making Ricciardo’s move look even wiser. Let’s be honest: Daniel should never have left Red Bull and joined Renault in the first place. But with McLaren, he’ll at least be driving for a team that seems to be on a roll, that has plenty of money from Lando Norris’s father Adam, who seems to be slightly more business-minded than the French state, and where next to Lando, he’ll probably have a first driver status.

The far larger surprise came a week earlier with Vettel announcing he’s leaving Ferrari at the end of the season (if we end up having one), when his contract comes to an end. Given it’s unclear where he’s going or if he’s leaving the sport altogether, this has led to loads of speculation as to his reasons. It’s unclear if he was offered more than a one-year extension and on what terms, some therefore claiming money played a role. A lot has also been focused on the lack of a cultural fit at Ferrari after Luca di Montezemolo left and was replaced by the not-very-FI-loving Sergio Macchione and his foot soldier Maurizio Arrivabene. There may be some truth to both points, but you have to believe Vettel is mainly in it for winning races, not for the money. And in terms of culture, the changes didn’t happen yesterday. Vettel has been driving under new management since 2015 and there didn’t seem to be any issues until he started making mistakes. And that was after a certain Charles Leclerc joined, and regularly drove faster – and better.

Not Seb’s prowdest moment

If there is indeed a cultural issue, it has no doubt been complicated by the Monegasque Leclerc, a true Southerner who is fluent in Italian, both language- and cultural-wise. Leclerc is also young enough not to have demands on anything but driving his car, which he does very well. But I doubt this is fundamentally about culture. My guess would be that it’s more related to Vettel sensing he’s losing his first driver status and as a four-time world champion, maybe just not having the energy to go for it again. He has nothing left to prove, which is also the reason he may be leaving the sport.

All good things come to an end sometime

If Vettel says on, his options are rather limited. That he would go to a smaller team with no chance of winning races doesn’t feel very likely. That basically limits it to one option, given Albon doesn’t seem to be at risk at Red Bull (and Verstappen most certainly isn’t). That would be to take the second seat at Mercedes next to Lewis, replacing Valtteri Bottas who’s been on rolling one-year contracts since joining the team in 2017. However, whether Mercedes would be prepared to open such a potential powder keg and whether Lewis Hamilton would agree to it is far from certain. It’s also highly doubtful whether Vettel, who could never challenge Lewis’s first driver status, would accept to play second fiddle to him.

The winner in all this is of course Carlos Sainz Jr, son of legendary rally driver Carlos Sainz, who did an excellent job at McLaren in 2019. By contracting him for 2021, Ferrari also completes the transition to the next generation of drivers. If Albon starts delivering, Red Bull can be said to have done the same thing, leaving Mercedes trailing behind – and making it even less probable they would engage an ageing Sebastian Vettel. The most likely option therefore seems to be that it’s “Tschüss, Seb” thanks for everything!

World champion for Red Bull in 2013 – Vettel’s really happy days!