Is Charles Leclerc set to replace the right Scuderia Ferrari driver for the 2019 Formula 1 season, or did Ferrari make a mistake?
Four-time Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel and Alfa Romeo Sauber rookie Charles Leclerc are set to drive for Scuderia Ferrari in the 2019 Formula 1 season. Vettel began driving for the team in the 2015 season while Leclerc has only ever driven for the team as a test driver.
Leclerc is set to replace 2007 Formula 1 champion Kimi Raikkonen as the teammate to the 31-year-old German next year. But was their decision to replace the 39-year-old Finn with Leclerc the correct one?
Don’t misread this question. Ferrari’s decision to add Leclerc to their lineup was the right one; there is no doubt about it. The 2016 GP3 Series and 2017 Formula 2 champion is arguably the sport’s top rising star, and many people believe that he will become an instant championship contender who will go on to win many championships over the course of his Formula 1 career.
The question pertains to whether or not the 20-year-old Monegasque is replacing the right driver.
Did Ferrari make the wrong decision by giving Vettel a three-year contract extension last season while giving Raikkonen just a one-year contract extension?
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Vettel is set to return to Ferrari in both the 2019 and 2020 seasons, while Raikkonen is in his eighth, fifth consecutive and likely final season driving for the team, as he is set to drive for Sauber on a two-year contract beginning next year.
But it has been Vettel, not Raikkonen, who has singlehandedly thrown away his chance at becoming a five-time champion this year. In more races than not, he has had a faster car than that of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport’s Lewis Hamilton, who currently leads the driver standings.
Yet with three races remaining on the 2018 schedule and a maximum of 75 points on the table for each driver, Hamilton has a 70-point lead in the driver standings, and he has a great chance to clinch his fifth career championship in this weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix.
Since Vettel arrived at Ferrari in the 2015 season, he has been their clear number one driver. Before the United States Grand Prix, he had earned 13 victories since arriving at Ferrari. Meanwhile, Raikkonen had not won a race driving for Ferrari since the 2009 season. He returned to the team in the 2014 season after driving for them from the 2007 season through the 2009 season, and he has driven for them ever since.
With only four races remaining for Raikkonen as a Ferrari driver, he took the lead of the United States Grand Prix on its first lap and went on to lead an overwhelming majority of its laps before winning it to earn his first victory since he won the 2013 season opener, the Australian Grand Prix, when he was in his second and final season driving for Lotus.
With Vettel having been given a three-position grid penalty (and then spinning on the first lap) for this race, Raikkonen showed that he is still more than capable of winning races when he is not hindered by Ferrari’s preference of the success of his teammate.
Given the fact that the success of Raikkonen’s teammate has been broken up by his seemingly constant mistakes that have cost him a chance to compete for the championship this season, was it a mistake by Ferrari to sign Vettel to a three-year contract extension last season as opposed to Raikkonen?
After all, even as Ferrari’s number two driver, Raikkonen has finished ahead of Vettel in eight of the 18 races that have been contested so far this season.
But even with that said, Ferrari would be foolish to replace Vettel as opposed to Raikkonen. Vettel, at his best, performs at a higher level than Raikkonen. That is pretty much a proven fact. Even taking into account Raikkonen’s role as Ferrari’s number two driver, the statistics speak for themselves.
While Raikkonen is not a driver who makes the kind of mistakes that Vettel has this season, Vettel gives Ferrari a better chance to win their first driver championship since Raikkonen won his in the 2007 season than Raikkonen does.
When he isn’t making the kinds of mistakes that he has made this season in races such as the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the French Grand Prix, the German Grand Prix, the Italian Grand Prix and the United States Grand Prix, Vettel’s level of driving is far more sustainable than that of Raikkonen when it comes to contending for championships.
Raikkonen is a great driver, but Vettel’s upside is far greater, especially considering the fact that he is almost eight years younger than Raikkonen and has won three more championships than Raikkonen has.
What remains to be seen is whether it will be Vettel or Leclerc who will have the better chance to dethrone the driver who is quickly rising to the top of Formula 1’s all-time wins and championships lists: Lewis Hamilton. We should find out next year.
Do you believe that Ferrari made all the right decisions regarding how their driver lineup is set to look in the 2019 Formula 1 season? Is Charles Leclerc replacing the right driver by replacing Kimi Raikkonen, or should he be replacing Sebastian Vettel?