Team orders to preserve the established order at Ferrari could not only hinder their chances of success; it also reveals that Vettel has the most to lose
Callum Alexander | Callum on Cars | F1
It is becoming increasingly clear that an intriguing focal point emerging from F1 2019 is the delicately poised dynamic that hangs in the balance within the Ferrari team.
It revolves around the Ferrari strategy of approach: their use of team orders and adopted 'Vettel priority policy' in the championship battle. This fundamental scenario has implications that strike straight to the core of the established hierarchy at the Italian outfit, and it was displayed in true colours again at the Shanghai International Circuit, in F1s one thousandth race.
For clarification, these blogs are not morphing into ‘The Failings of Ferrari’ chronicles series throughout F1 2019 – the Scuderia are the authors of their own destiny. But the revelations unfolding offer up a complex conundrum with an uncertain outcome – which makes Ferrari’s situation particularly interesting.
The intervention of Ferrari imposing team orders instructing Leclerc to give third place to teammate Vettel on lap 11 incurs uncomfortable consequences sanctioned on the team and its image. It creates an impression of the desperation and pressure they are feeling in trying to overthrow Mercedes as F1s powerhouse - during the Chinese Grand Prix, Ferrari reacted to racing, as opposed to implementing their own race.
This compelling narrative starkly exposes the competitive closeness between teammates Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc. Combined with Ferrari’s apparent inconsistency and unpredictability in performance, the interwoven small detail is evidently proving to be one of the fascinating sub-plots that could define the Italian marques season.
So much so that Mercedes’ imperious impeccability in maximising opportunity and performance from their car and drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, is to an extent overshadowed, at least in China. The Brackley based team have secured three consecutive one-two finishes in the first three races, a feat not replicated since Williams achieved it, in 1992.
The red team were not capable of seizing the initiative of their race through savvy tactics and instigated authority from performance, as they did not yield enough. Instead, they resorted to treating Leclerc like a sacrificial lamb, to succour Vettel in his own quest for the championship.
Again, contrary to expectation, Mercedes had the fastest car the entire weekend, which was confirmed on Saturday in qualifying with the Silver Arrows taking a front-row lockout with Bottas on pole and Hamilton just 0.023 behind. Ferrari were a further three tenths back from the Finn’s pole lap, with Vettel edging third by just 0.017 seconds to Leclerc who resided in fourth.
As the lights went out, Hamilton made the better getaway and jumped Bottas – he never relinquished the lead again. On row two, a copy and paste manoeuvre occurred: Leclerc had a better start and overtook his Four Time Champion teammate into third.
As the early laps of the race passed, by lap 8 Leclerc was struggling to maintain pace with Bottas’ Mercedes in second. He was slipping slowly further back, but was 2.8 seconds behind at the end of lap 8. Aware of the growing gap, Ferrari asked Vettel how much faster he could go – a message publicly broadcast on team radio.
It was later disclosed that Vettel was also on team radio stating that he could drive faster than Leclerc. In response, the Monegasque was asked to speed up, but it was futile - the Silver Arrows had more pace than Ferrari, and were simply pulling away.
By lap 10, the gap from Bottas to Leclerc had ticked to 3.7 seconds, the moment when Ferrari used team orders to switch their cars. In his third race for Ferrari, Leclerc let his quadruple world champion teammate by at the start of turn one. Taking Vettel’s deficit of 1.1 seconds to Leclerc into account, the gap to Bottas had now grown to 4.8 seconds. And it continued to do so.
Vettel was pushing hard, even overdriving to compensate to catch up to the Silver Arrows, and by the fact he was team ordered into third.
“Yeah, I felt I could go faster. Then it was a bit difficult for me to find the rhythm, so I had a couple of wobbles where I locked up and lost the advantage I gained,” Vettel said.
It was then that Leclerc, tailing in fourth, said over team radio: “now what?” He was referencing the failed attempt to close the gap to Mercedes – effectively, the pin dropped, victory in China on performance, would not be attainable.
Yet in the midst of battle, with Ferrari yielding diminished performance, they were therefore fighting on all fronts, but had become preoccupied trying to reign in Mercedes’ expanding lead. This meant not enough consideration had been given to deflect the imposing threat of Red Bull and Max Verstappen.
He was tracking Leclerc by two seconds until lap 17, when from fifth position the Dutchman and his team triggered the undercut – a tactic where a pitted car uses performance from new tyres on the out-lap to pass a car ahead on track on older tyres. This pressured Ferrari into responding, and it caught them out.
Leclerc was side-lined into fifth, and became effectively an onlooker throughout the rest of the race; Vettel nearly lost third to Verstappen also – but the German managed to fend him off in the on-track battle.
Ferrari became embroiled in a melee with Verstappen for the remainder of the race and were responding to preserve third place and the expense Leclerc, who was inconsequentially used as decoy to stall and falter their rivals.
Ferrari have conducted their race strategies lynch pinned on the ‘Vettel priority policy’ that has been adopted since the start of the season. Team principle at Ferrari, Mattia Binotto has said that Vettel will get preference over Leclerc in ‘50-50 situations’ because: “He won four championships, and, certainly for us, he's the driver who has the most probability to challenge for the title. We agreed with both drivers.”
There was a codicil added to the policy though: “In a few races' time, things may change for whatever reason, bad luck or whatever could be the situation, we may change our position, no doubt,” Binotto added.
On paper, their case in point makes complete sense. At 31-years old, Vettel is in the golden years of his career, whereby all the ingredients that make up the ultimate F1 driver are in full bloom. Whereas, Leclerc at 21-years old is establishing himself, his skills and getting to grips with the demands expected of him at Ferrari.
In the race in China, Mercedes had a clear pace advantage; Ferrari out of desperation or simply rolling the dice, tried to respond by letting their quadruple world champion move to third, onto the frontline, to try and close in on Mercedes. But once it became apparent that Vettel had no answers to Mercedes’ pace, it made Ferrari vulnerable to losing third and fourth to Red Bull with Verstappen, whose pace was similar to the Italian teams.
The ‘Vettel priority policy’ has not been used sparingly in the infancy of F1 2019: in the first three races, it has been imposed three times by Ferrari – with Leclerc abiding on two out of three occasions.
The first was in Australia, in Melbourne where around Albert Park, in the final laps, Leclerc in fifth, was told to remain behind Vettel in fourth as a result of better tyre strategy.
In Bahrain, after a bad start from pole position, he was ordered to wait behind Vettel for two laps after clawing his way back to second from third. He didn’t wait, overtook Vettel and set about recording his first F1 victory – until the turbo on his engine failed that let the two Mercedes overtake, which dropped him to third place. Vettel finished fifth after a tricky race, where he spun racing Hamilton.
In China, the psychology of Vettel is a curious aspect when he was behind Leclerc in fourth during the early stages of the race - he must have been tinged with disappointment and frustration from his launch off the grid, as Leclerc had taken third place from him.
Yet, he would have been equally aware of the preferential treatment afforded to him through the ‘Vettel priority policy’. It is therefore in his personal interest to enact this arrangement, knowing that Ferrari will favour him in races. In effect, Vettel can rely upon it as a get-out clause in difficult team battles.
In Ferrari’s interpretation, this is the logical and best approach to beating Hamilton and Mercedes to the world championships. It is in contrast to the difference in mantra adopted at Mercedes; team principal Toto Wolff gives parity to teammate Hamilton and Bottas, until a superior leader emerges in the championship – only then does the select driver get priority and preferential treatment from the team.
The best example of this is at the 2018 Russian Grand Prix, where in Sochi, Bottas had led from pole position, but because he had not accumulated enough points in the standings to be in the Drivers’ championship fight, he was instructed by Wolff to let Hamilton pass, to win the race. This creates a more sustainable, productive and cooperative team environment, built upon meritocracy – a fair and acceptable system for the drivers and the team.
The Ferrari teammates are separated by just one point: Vettel with 37 and Leclerc with 36. If the Mercedes approach was endorsed by Ferrari, contrary to Binotto has said, then the points standings between Vettel and Leclerc would be adjusted - and Ferrari would be closer to Mercedes.
In Australia, had Leclerc been allowed to pass Vettel, he would have gained two additional points to his haul. In Bahrain, the race result was beyond Ferrari management control due to a technical failure on Leclerc’s car and a driver error from Vettel. And in China, if Leclerc had maintained third place, he would have gained five more points than the ten he got from his fifth place. That would have equated to seven additional points in Leclerc’s tally.
After Hamilton powered to victory in China, his sixth win at the Shanghai International Circuit and second win in three races, it has left Hamilton championship leader on 68 points. As the standings closest Ferrari, Vettel is 31 points behind in fourth, Leclerc sits in fifth, both two and three points behind respectively to Verstappen in third on 39.
Had meritocratic principal been adopted by Ferrari, Leclerc would be on 43 points, in third place in the standings, and twenty-five points behind Hamilton. Vettel would have had 32 points and be in fifth in the standings, had he finished fifth in Australia and fourth in China.
With Leclerc continuing to ruffle feathers at Ferrari, it is clear that if he maintains that level of performance, it has the potential to disrupt and destabilise the team dynamics and established order within Italian team. Vettel, is very aware of this potential scenario, and how it is portrayed in the media, as it asks uncomfortable questions about his status at Ferrari.
Vettel alluded to this in the official F1 press conference: “Well, let’s put it this way, I knew the moment it was happening that I would have to face these questions. Not sure I want to answer because I’m a little bit against the way you – all of you – work, because you take bits out of answers here and there and put it into the wrong light.”
“So, if you ask me again in half an hour down in the paddock, maybe I give you a straightforward answer and you don’t write it down or record. Seems the way that, not maybe all of you but some of you are working.”
It is clear the pressure is piling up on Vettel to consistently perform and live up to his formidable reputation that he made for himself at Red Bull, just to beat his Ferrari teammate in a race, let alone Hamilton to the championship.
But there is something else between Vettel and Ferrari as well.
Last year, when Hamilton was in the prolonged discussion phase with Mercedes over a new two-year contract, one team tested the water and the bond that relationship has grown into.
After signing his contract in July 2018, Hamilton said at the time: “In terms of the other guys approaching, one did,” he said. “But I didn't give it any air.”
When asked to confirm if it was Ferrari: “You can make whatever assumption that you want,” was his reply.
On the F1 grid, there are only two teams that would want to afford Hamilton’s salary and simultaneously offer him a competitive enough car. The first being his current team Mercedes, the second, in all reality, is Ferrari. This writer has good reason to therefore speculate that the team in question who contacted Hamilton, was Ferrari.
If it is true, it would illustrate a lack of faith and belief Ferrari have in Vettel to lead them to world championship success and undermining Vettel’s credentials and credibility.
If Vettel cannot master the basics by beating Leclerc, it would leave him on borrowed time and at risk of becoming a high-profile Ferrari failure.
But in this very moment, if Vettel and Ferrari cannot harness their combined personal ambition to win the Drivers and Constructors championship, then on Mercedes’ current form, the season looks set to be one step to far for both of them, once again.
Callum Alexander | Callum on Cars | F1
Photos: RaceFans.net, ESPN
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