Lewis Hamilton Observes that Sebastian Vettel is No Longer No. 1 Driver at Ferrari

Published 10/10/2019, 2:26 PM EDT

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Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton is of the opinion that Scuderia Ferrari have officially decided to focus on Charles Leclerc instead of Sebastian Vettel. The first signs of it were visible when they tried to impose team orders on Vettel. The operative word is ‘tried’, as the German ignored orders to let Leclerc overtake him.

“It’s an interesting dynamic they have there because obviously the Seb was number one and now clearly not,” Hamilton confessed to the media at Suzuka. “From kind of the energy, from the outlook, they’re trying to ramp Charles up to be.”

“Is that good for a team? I don’t think so. But that’s the philosophy they’ve had for forever.”

“We don’t complain because we have a good philosophy, it works really well here and we don’t plan on changing it any time soon.”

via Imago

Lewis Hamilton analysed Ferrari’s tactics alongside the one’s he and Valtteri Bottas used in Sochi: “We work together as a team when we do that start.”

“[If] I’m pole [or] Valtteri’s pole, instead of giving the tow to the third place guy, giving the tow to second place guy. We work together in that scenario, we did it a couple of years ago. He covered it inside, I got a tow, we locked up and he kept the lead.

“So I understand that working ethic. But I think Charles had said that ‘I’ll let you take the tow’ and didn’t move and defend which he should have done. You don’t give up a place and then expect to get it back.”

Lewis Hamilton even alluded to his debut season at McLaren partnered with Fernando Alonso. With this, he compared the current situation at Ferrari to his relationship with the Spaniard.

The soon-to-be 6-time world champion divulged that Fernando Alonso was the number one. However, come mid-season, and the scales tipped towards himself as the alpha dog.

However, it was worth noting that Vettel insisted that he is not the Number 2 driver at Ferrari.

via Imago

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Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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