THE BEGINNING OF THE END
This was the season it felt as though Vettel’s Ferrari career began to stagnate, and where Ferrari’s faith in its star perhaps began to waver. To begin with, things were good still. Vettel won four of the first ten races, including Hamilton’s home race, to lead the championship.
Again things began to unravel in the second half of the season. First came the ‘small mistake with big consequences’, as Vettel himself put it after he crashed out while leading his own home race in Germany, turning an eight-point lead into a 17-point deficit as Hamilton picked up the pieces. That began another run of six wins in seven races that turned another title battle in Hamilton’s favour.
Vettel utilised Ferrari’s apparent engine advantage to win narrowly at Spa, but that was it. The mistakes crept back in – colliding with Hamilton while battling for track position at Monza; spinning while trying to pass Verstappen’s Red Bull in Japan; spinning again while fighting Ricciardo at Austin. All the while Hamilton grew stronger, and after Mexico, with two more races still to run, he was champion again – now five and counting, surpassing Seb’s own total in the process.
Hamilton seemed to almost pity his fallen foe. Questions were asked of Vettel’s capacity to get the job done. Ross Brawn suggested Vettel’s driving was “out of sorts”; the usual tropes about Vettel being a one-trick Adrian Newey pony were trotted out. It is legitimate to ask whether Hamilton could have won the 2017 and 2018 titles had he and Vettel swapped cars. Many would argue convincingly that he would have.
The rot had certainly begun to set in. By this time some key decisions that would ultimately have far-reaching consequences for Vettel had already been taken. Before Marchionne’s untimely death earlier that year, a succession plan had been put in place to elevate John Elkann and Louis Camilleri to the head of the company. Ferrari’s new leaders pledged to honour Marchionne’s wishes to finally replace Kimi Räikkönen with star rookie Charles Leclerc, on loan at Sauber. That winter, they also ended Arrivabene’s haphazard spell as team principal.
This would eventually turn Vettel’s world upside down.