Irvine: "Ferrari should have paid Vettel not to race this year"

Sebastian Vettel was somewhat surprised by the news that Ferrari will say goodbye to him at the end of this year and logically the German will drive mainly for himself this year. Charles Leclerc has meanwhile become the new showpiece for the team and those two drivers were in each other's hair several times in 2019. This will continue in 2020, as both drivers dropped out last weekend.

Disturbed balance

Because Vettel is driving his last year at Ferrari, the German has nothing more to lose. Proportions were already on edge with the team, as Leclerc struggled upwards and placed himself in an equal position as Vettel. With a driver who now has nothing more to lose, Ferrari has sharpened the ratios even more and that creates an imbalance in the team.

Former F1 driver Eddie Irvine at Omnisport says: "At Ferrari, the pressure is second to none, it’s a tough situation but I think now it’s even tougher, because Ferrari are stuck with a driver that knows he’s getting sacked at the end of the year. Really the loyalty is not there and Leclerc is their number one hope, so I just think it’s a really screwed-up dynamic."

The 'solution'? Irvine is clearly in it, Ferrari shouldn't have let Vettel drive this year. "I would have got rid of Vettel this year to be honest, just paid him to go and taken a young guy, or anybody. I think it’s destructive having Vettel there, but they had their reasons, I guess."

"Maybe they didn’t want to pay so much money for a guy to do nothing, I don’t know", concludes the former driver who drove at Ferrari from 1996 to 1999.