Sebastian Vettel has shrugged off the significance of the changed dynamics in Ferrari with Charles Leclerc coming in from 2019 F1 season.
It is well known how good Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen gelled together in Ferrari in the last few F1 seasons, with the German being one of the few drivers with whom Raikkonen connected to at a sound level.
The partnership is broken with Ferrari promoting Leclerc to a race seat after just one season for the highly rated youngster in Sauber. As both Vettel and Ferrari try to regain title glory, the addition of Leclerc makes things tricky certainly.
It remains to be seen how it eventually works out to be but so far Vettel has played down any huge significance around the changed dynamics within the team. The German feels it is normal to have different ways with the two drivers being different.
“We sit right opposite to each other [in the briefing room] and yeah, we are talking quite a lot about the car’s behavior – his feedback and my feedback – listening to each other along with the team,” said Vettel to the media including FormulaRapida.net.
“I ask him [as well] but yeah, I don’t recall every question he asked me. We have talked about the car, our feelings…about the front-end, rear-end and more. There were lot of questions, but it was from both sides, so not just his side.
“I was going along really well with Kimi, I think I have probably spoken more with Charles last week [already], than I did with Kimi until the Barcelona race but jokes apart, of course, it is different dynamics, it is also new team for him.
“I think [for the] first year with a new team, there is lot of stuff to go through, a lot of faces and people to get know. Last couple of years was straightforward [for us] because everybody knew each other.
“I think he is driving differently to Kimi which is normal because everybody is a bit different, but we obviously move on and I think Kimi is quite happy with what he is doing now in Sauber and we try to move on here.
“I don’t feel much difference, I mean we always talk about the same things like lacking front, too much rear, this or that, so we are trying to find the best balance and pointing out the weaknesses of the car which has been very similar.
“But sure, everybody is different. From outside it is difficult to see but from the inside, from the data we share and so on, you can see it is a bit different but needless to say, he is fast and knows how to drive a car, otherwise he wouldn’t be here.”
The two F1 tests have shown good camaraderie between the two drivers with both managing to top the time sheet to showcase the pace and at the same time undertake solid number of laps to test the reliability and endurance.
It remains to be seen how they work together during the season and if Ferrari indeed ends up favouring a driver. For now, Ferrari’s new head Mattia Binotto has indicated that both will be free to race each other, but only time and situation will tell how it plays out.
Additional reporting by Arnau Vinals
Check out all the data from the two tests
[Read: Ferrari drops Mission Winnow from team name]
