McLaren: "Vettel hasn't been an option for us."

With the departure of Sebastian Vettel at Scuderia Ferrari the silly season was started. The announcements followed each other very quickly, but still there was some time to speculate in between. Zak Brown, McLaren team boss, however, denies that Vettel was ever an option for his team.

Vettel stops at Ferrari, Carlos Sainz takes over his seat and Daniel Ricciardo claims the Spaniard's seat at McLaren. As soon as Vettel's spot became available there was speculation about possible shifts. Ricciardo and Sainz were the biggest contenders for the Ferrari seat, which made a possible spot free for Vettel at McLaren or Renault.

Zak Brown denies that there was ever a place for Vettel on the team from Woking. In conversation with Sky F1, the team boss says: "Of course Seb is a great driver and a four-time world champion, but I think we already figured out internally that we would go for Daniel or Carlos."

No big happy family at Ferrari

Brown focuses on Ferrari and predicts a lot of spectacle within the team. The team boss sees that it is not all fun and games within the Italian team: "It is clear that at the moment it is not a nice environment within Ferrari's garage between the drivers and the management. It doesn't look like a big happy family."

"This is gonna make for some exciting races in 2020. In Brazil last year we already saw a run-up to this, but this year I expect a lot more".

Hopefully the arrival of Carlos Sainz will bring some peace within the ranks again, although this hope may be against our better judgement. The Scuderia is not known for its best 'driver management'. Now that the team is built around Charles Leclerc, the arrival of Sainz could mean that the foundation of this is being kicked against and an internal rivalry begins again.