Ferrari’s Vettel has car to challenge Hamilton for title

As Formula One converges upon Melbourne for next weekend’s Albert Park curtain-raiser, signs are growing that Ferrari have their strongest opportunity yet to break Mercedes’ stranglehold of the sport.

After two rounds of winter testing in which the Scuderia showed a performance advantage of as much as half a second a lap, Ross Brawn, their former technical director, has identified them as clear favourites for the 2019 season.

While Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel has won the Australian Grand Prix for the past two years, he has each time lost the driver’s title to Lewis Hamilton with two races to spare.

But, as Mercedes seek to emulate Ferrari’s six consecutive constructors’ championships, Brawn believes his former employers are perfectly placed for a resurgence.

“Sebastian is more than capable of winning the world championship,” he said.

“With the calmness the team now have, they have every chance this year.”

In 2018, the situation at Maranello was anything but serene, with the death of CEO Sergio Marchionne casting a pall over Ferrari, and the tensions between team principal Maurizio Arrivabene and technical chief Mattia Binotto seldom far from the surface.

But with the highly respected Binotto since replacing Arrivabene in the top job, and dynamic young Monegasque Charles Leclerc taking over from Kimi Raikkonen as Vettel’s teammate, the power dynamic has shifted.

“The team were in a little bit of disarray last year – it was not easy,” Brawn said.

“If you are going to beat Hamilton and Mercedes, you need to be on top of everything. I feel that this year will be stronger for them.”

It is an opinion shared by Hamilton himself, even though he has emerged as champion in all but one year since the dawn of F1’s turbo-hybrid period in 2014.

Even as he pursues a sixth title, he cannot help but be struck by Ferrari’s pace.

“We were already behind on performance last year, so we had to overachieve,” he said.

“Now we have to squeeze out even more.” –