Hamilton feeds off Ferrari feuding
LECLERC’S FURY AS VETTEL DEFIES TEAM
LEWIS HamIlton won the Russian Grand Prix to move a chunk closer to his sixth world title. But the pop of champagne corks was drowned out by the ‘domestic’ taking place in the house next door.
there is poison at Ferrari and it is hard to see it going away. the acrimony between Sebastian Vettel, 32 and a four-time world champion, and Charles leclerc, 21 and in his second season in Formula one, was the major story as night fell over the Sochi paddock.
at the centre of the argument was a bizarre pre-race agreement which leclerc accused Vettel of ignoring.
nothing was going right for Ferrari yesterday, so much so that the team’s highly-charged press conference had to be moved because of a medical emergency shutting the Ferrari hospitality area.
murder, perhaps? Was it Colonel leclerc in the engineer’s room with a wheel gun?
no, as it happens, the feuding pair walked in, one by one, to see us further along the paddock. they leant against a wall with team principal mattia Binotto standing between them. Just in case. neither driver wanted to say much as they were interrogated over their latest on-track conflagration, which unfolded like this.
leclerc started on pole. Vettel, third on the grid, behind Hamilton, got off superbly. He swept past both Hamilton and leclerc.
Soon, leclerc was asking to be handed back the lead. the team thrice asked Vettel to oblige. He thrice refused to do so.
the ins-and-out were still being disputed in the gloaming several hours after the race was over and Valtteri Bottas had followed Hamilton home for a mercedes one-two, with leclerc third. Vettel fell victim to engine failure halfway through. In passing, Hamilton drove extremely well to do what he does routinely: put himself in the perfect position to take advantage of every bit of fortune going, the retired Ferrari in this case.
His lead is 73 points over Bottas and 107 over leclerc with only 130 available.
But back with Ferrari. It was claimed separately by Binotto and leclerc that their race arrangement was simple. leclerc said: ‘at the start, I went to the left to give Seb the slipstream. We then had to swap positions back.
‘the tactic was to use the slipstream to be one-two, which happened. But then... I don’t know.’
Vettel, however, countered afterwards that he ‘did nothing wrong’, saying he would have got past leclerc ‘anyway’ — without a tow, by dint of his clean getaway, presumably.
a replay of the start shows his contention is credible. Whatever the reality, Vettel did not give way. So Ferrari moved on to Plan C, bringing leclerc in four laps earlier than his team-mate to grant him the early benefit on fresh rubber. this worked and leclerc was ahead again. But, agony on agony, Hamilton took the opportunity under the safety car deployed for Vettel’s retirement to make a ‘free’ stop and re-emerged with his lead intact. Bottas moved into second place when leclerc (below) strangely stopped again. Several things are perplexing. Why would Ferrari not let their men race freely? Why does nobody there have the authority to control their drivers? Was this squabble a fallout from the previous weekend, when leclerc complained about Vettel’s more beneficial strategy in Singapore? Which of the duo is the team backing?
It is that last question causing neurosis inside the two crash helmets. It looked yesterday as if leclerc was the chosen son, being supposedly granted the lead by decree. Vettel, by contrast, was kept out for those crucial four extra laps despite telling the pit wall his tyres were going off.
the truth is that this driver line-up does not work and never will do. Just as Fernando alonso and lewis Hamilton — respectively the Vettel and leclerc of their time — combusted at mclaren in 2007, it is a partnership for the bonfire.
now, like then, the two drivers are evenly matched and neither will give an inch. the older man expects respect, the younger demands equal status. alonso lasted at the team for one year.
It might well be that, again, the senior partner gives way.
For now, Binotto is playing the farce both ways, last night insisting — illogically — that neither driver had erred.
I put it to the Ferrari boss that he now had on his hands the biggest management job in the sport. ‘It’s a luxury,’ he said, smiling thinly. one he can cannot afford.