Vettel or the prius driver...

Seb and Ferrari is a toxic relationship at this point. The only question is will Seb do a Lauda ("Driving in circles is stupid.") and quit mid season or will Ferrari do a Prost on him and sack him before season end.

PS: On 2nd thought my analogy is not quite perfect since Lauda's departure was from McLaren and not Ferrari. Scooze.

 

I thought it was from Brabham.

Or Vettel could do a Damon Hill and park a perfectly healthy car on the track at several occasions, just to be released.

 

Sheesh, you might be right about Brabham. Your memory beats mine. Not that that means a lot...

Doing a Damon Hill? Never knew that story. Really?

Or doing a Prost at Interlagos when the first rain drops start to fall.

 

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/151260/ferrari-open-to-vettel-chassis-change

Ferrari is open to changing Sebastian Vettel's chassis if the German feels that there is a fundamental problem with the car he's had for the last two Formula 1 weekends.

The German endured another frustrating outing at Silverstone on Sunday, as he failed to finish in the points on a weekend where he could not find any more speed from his car.

Vettel is at a loss to explain why things have been so difficult, and team boss Mattia Binotto says he would not be against a chassis change if it could help.

"It is something at least which I didn't discuss [yet]," said Binotto. "That's part of the discussion we have within teams.

"I think we are open if it is something that may help. Why not? I think whatever we can do to help is important for us, for Sebastian, and I think from a team point of view and a driver point of view, to try to make better in the next races.

"It is important, so open to do it. I will leave it to the driver and the team to discuss and decide."

Vettel said that he couldn't answer why progress with his car had hit a limit at the Silverstone double-header, but he remained hopeful of a reset for the next race in Spain.

"Two weekends in the same place and from Saturday morning, last week, I wasn't able to make any progress. That's the thing that stands out," said Vettel, when asked if there was any obvious explanation for where the deficit to Leclerc lay.

 

Lauda was driving for Brabham when he cut short a practice session at the 1979 Canadian GP, pulled into the pits for no apparent reason, got out of the car and declared to Bernie Ecclestone he was quitting there and then.

During the 1999 season, D.Hill was joined at Jordan by Harald Frentzen who had replaced him already at Williams.
The German was often faster, and D.Hill told Eddie Jordan half-season that he wished to stop.
Jordan said he would hold him to his contract until he found a replacement.
From then on Hill drove without conviction during several GPs .
At the last GP, he came to the pits, and retired claiming "mental fatigue".

 

Sebastian Vettel
#5 Ferrari SF1000

Has now had so many spins all by himself that Ricciardo coined the term “Seb spin” for his own last Sunday, which followed Vettel dropping it at the start after touching the inside Abbey kerbs. He was furious Ferrari brought him in early on the hards – especially after just 11 laps in his second stint – but the issues really stemmed from his latest spin.

Autosport rating
4

Reader average rating 3.5

 

Considering how well Charles went yesterday and how he has 2 podiums so far, not so sure Ferrari is in meltdown mode. Low on power for various reasons but they still implemented a good setup for Silverstone that worked better than everyone else save Merc and RBR. Leclerc even made HAM—with fresh tires—work hard to pass him and his 30-lap old tires.

The one who is in meltdown mode is Vettel and arguably he’s been for the last couple of years. Which is why they decided not to renew his contract.

They started him on the right tires (same as the race winner) and so in better shape than Leclerc until he spun by himself... again. He was right behind Leclerc before that and could have gotten a good result. But after falling to the back of the pack, he was not going to finish in the top ten so they just brought him in to get out of Lerclec’s way.

No team would plan the failure of one car just to make that driver look bad as every point counts. They’ve already announced he’s leaving they don’t need to prove their decision right to anyone.

About Vettel’s engine failure on Saturday I’m still going with what the F2 announcer explained as the delay to the F2 qualifying session - they had to repair a curb that Vettel ran over and broke with the announcer saying “Vettel kept his foot in it and damaged the car” which probably included damaging the engine. Which makes sense as when was the last time you saw an engine throw a rod and hole the block like that?

 

Interesting assessment. Sounds like Seb is driving in anger over the curb and destroyed the PU in the process. He was angry all weekend it seemed.

 

A 1.6 litre V6 with an oversquare bore has an inherent red line of about 15,000 RPMs (5,000 fps piston speed)
The Hybrid engines are self regulated to 12,000 RPMs due to fuel limitation of 100 litre/hr maximum.
The rods are stressed quadratically with RPMs, so a 15,000 capable engine running at 12,000 RPMs is operating no more than 64% tensile strength.
It is clear that rods so understressed will brake very seldom.

 

It's like that extremely awkward feeling when you are embarrassed for somebody else. It pains me to see Seb like this. Something is seriously wrong. Vet's mental state is shattered.

 

No, not intentionally. But neither was it intentional by Ferrari to sabotage Seb but maybe just bad luck from hitting a curb.

 

...bad luck brought on by a driving error compounded by not backing off. Assuming this is what really happened.

We should get Ferrari’s assessment of the failure soon. Wonder if they’ll specifically mention the cause if it turns out to be caused by the curb.

 

I don't trust Ferrari to run an equal car for Seb. The strategy he gets is poor at best (exactly the same as Ferrari was doing to Massa and Kimi for the past 10 years), but specifically the car that will handle extremely poorly in sessions that matter (and handling fine the day before) is something that concerns me and the only thing that makes sense to me is that some form of sabotage is happening in the team. All too easy to change some things in the extremely complicated setup of these cars by a mechanic or two...

Seb may have made too many mistakes over the years but he certainly hasn't forgotten to drive. He knows this, too. If he suspects the sabotage, and feels he doesn't get the spport he deserves...his heart also is not in the team anymore thus why bother? Show up and drive...**** I wouldn't half blame him if he felt that way purely for how he's been treated by Ferrari this year, let alone the suspected sabotage!

 

Let me put on my tin foil hat first to be able to follow your conspiracy theories. Oh, I see. Nott.

Reality check on aisle 9: Seb is washed up. No conspiracy. He seems to have a fragile ego and is over the hill (just like MS was in his Merc years) and cant cut it anymore. Time to retire. Pronto.

 

Hardly. How many times have we heard Vettel question pit strategies? Plenty. Anyone with eyes in their head sees Ferrari is incapable of running 2 cars. So even if the setup is correct (it really isn't), Vettel is also being screwed on strategy.

 

We saw them do the same to Charles last year no? Team orders poorly timed to assist the #1 Vettel. Vettel needs to drive better. His manner on the radio is hardly productive to harmony. He might want to do things a bit more internal or private. He almost appears to want conflict with the team. It certainly is not affecting Charles. Seb is well paid and continues to drive. He has options to work with the team. If they simply cannot work together, end this mess.

 

We've never seen Seb behave this way. He's always done things (with the team) behind closed doors. He's clearly not happy with Ferrari brass right now, because how they handled the whole situation. Management is not Binotto's forte, that much is very clear.

 

It takes 2 sides, but they are all adults we hope lol

 

Giving the Spin Meister priority is just a waste of limited resources. He'll just spin it then complain about "lack of traction". He somehow found a way to spin his "slow car" coming out of a slow turn yesterday dropping to P20 right off the bat. Binotto should've dropped him after race 2 while still in Austria. But then again that might explain the other part of SF problems.

 

But he’s also never been “fired” before the start of the season either.

He obviously has no interest in doing Ferrari any favours, he’s frustrated that he can’t make up a handling or driving deficiency with bags of power—as Brundle said about himself, he’s awesome on a straight!—so he expresses his frustration in public because there’s no benefit to protect the relationship as it’s over.

He’s also trying to make a case for himself to find a ride for next year and, who knows, if he gets into the pink Merc he just might find a car that suits him and with all that power he’ll be able to show his talents on the straights and might even out-duel a Ferrari or two. And everyone will be saying Ferrari should have kept him and they sabotaged him. I won’t because as Charles is showing, if Ferrari had a top line driver (not one that’s just a little better than old Kimi) they could have been champions.

 

I am a long time Vettel Fan (more so since he joined Ferrari). He needs to have them change his chassis if for nothing else than to get a mental break and eliminate any chassis related issues from his mind if indeed he has any.
Like you I am embarrassed for him, he needs to pick himself up by the bootstraps and power forward. He is not going to get the same treatment as Leclerc, the team threw their arms around him last season and Vettel gave them too many reasons to do just that.

I believe his pride is getting in the way, it doesn’t matter now that he once had four titles. He needs to prove himself now, with challenging cars that everyone is struggling with. I fault Ferrari for not giving him a car balanced the way he would like but there always seems to be a disconnect in that regard. If the other guy can drive it faster then look at your own game bro...

I truly feel for him, he needs some wind in his sails or he needs to take a year off.
Look how refreshed Hulk was, he was quick out of the gate. A true break from Ferrari will only help him him in the long run, either his sanity, driving prowess or both.


Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat.com mobile app

 

This story offers a good perspective on things, I think:

https://www.grandprix247.com/2020/08/10/inside-line-ferrari-and-vettel-should-split-up-before-friday/amp/

 

As Murray Walker always said...IF is F1 spelled backwards! Could Ferrari have won the 2017/18 titles...perhaps...if they did absolutely faultless (both driver and team). Mistakes happen, and they did...on both sides.

It's a sad ending to Vettel's career with Ferrari. He lusted after Ferrari for most of his career...I have a picture somewhere taken I believe shortly after his Monza win in 2008...he bought a 430 Scuderia and he's filling it up. I just hope he does keep ties with Ferrari after his career his over. I think he's genuinely a nice guy. Maybe he won't get along with some of the current brass but that's beside the point. I'm happy he got to drive for Ferrari, sad it didn't result in a WDC or more...but it is what it is. Had LdM been at the helm of Ferrari still maybe Ferrari would've won 1.


EDIT: Pic is here but won't attach
https://imgur.com/a/9zEmqVb