18/11/2019
Yesterday's F1 race in Sao Paulo was pretty eventful, and it saw the two most successful drivers on the grid make significant errors, with both of them causing significant disruption to the final outcome of the race.
On lap 66 of the race, just five laps before the chequered flag, the two Ferrari drivers were in a line of cars behind Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes as the the safety car caused by Hamilton's team mate's retirement peeled into the pits. Max Verstappen was in the lead and managed to keep hold of that lead.
In front of the two Ferraris, Red Bull's Alexander Albon was trying to pass Hamilton, with Vettel and then Leclerc behind him.
Leclerc overtook Vettel cleanly into turn one, with Vettel then getting the DRS advantage on the following straight. Vettel had a good run and overtook his team mate, but had not got fully past him when he inexplicably moved across to the left and causing a collision and taking both cars out of the race.
Vettel was immediately on the radio screaming at what he considered to be his young team mate's error; before then saying sorry.
After the race, Leclerc showed extreme maturity when interviewed by the press, whereas Vettel's responses were terse and lacking in any admission of guilt.
It was very similar to the 2010 incident when Vettel took his then Red Bull team mate Mark Webber out of a race; where again he wrongly pointed the finger of blame at the innocent victim of his driving.
Vettel has, this year, also shown (as he did when partnered with Webber) that he is incapable of playing the team game.
Leclerc followed team orders at the beginning of the season, favouring Vettel, and yet has outperformed Vettel over the season as a whole; even with the four time World Champion refusing to comply with agreements made in respect of team orders.
Vettel's petulance and refusal to obey team orders, combined with the errors - especially when it wrecks the race for the team as a whole - are significant enough to mean that Ferrari should be looking to replace Vettel next year.
This is the second time that Vettel has been unsettled by a new, younger team mate.
His final year at Red Bull saw Daniel Ricciardo out perform the German in his first year at the team which had been built around Vettel. This year, the same has happened with the young Monaco driver in his first year at Ferrari and just his second in F1.
Hamilton also made an error in the closing stages, following the safety car caused by the Ferrari crash. He was following fellow British driver Alex Albon, who had driven an excellent race for his team Red Bull in his first season in F1. Albon took a slightly wider path than normal, still close to the racing line, in turn nine and Hamilton took a chance on diving down the inside of him. It didn't work and Hamilton spun the rookie driver round, breaking part of his front wing. Albon was left stranded, having to wait for the following case to stream past him before he could get going again.
The big difference is that Hamilton, who finished 3rd but was subsequently demoted to 7th due to a five second penalty for the crash, took full responsibility for the crash in the post race interviews. Given that he was being interviewed as the 3rd placed driver, his apology and acceptance of guilt was very mature. Indeed, I have been very critical of Hamilton in the past for his attitude and was extremely impressed with Hamilton's apology.
Of course, that doesn't really offer any compensation to Albon who was set to get his first podium finish in his first season in F1.
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