Arrivabene: 'The real Vettel is back'
"The real Vettel is back."
That is the claim of Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene, as the Italian team moves to put 2018 in the past and charge again for the world championship next year.
Sebastian Vettel remains Ferrari's 'number 1' driver, but the German came under attack from the partisan Italian press this year for high profile errors.
Even after the Abu Dhabi finale, Corriere dello Sport said: "Vettel says goodbye to a disappointing championship -- disappointing in his performance and his behaviour, as he is convinced he is not responsible for his defeat."
Not just that, young charger Charles Leclerc has been signed up as his new teammate, replacing Vettel's preferred pick, Kimi Raikkonen.
Leclerc got his 2019 season off to a start in the post-Abu Dhabi tyre test, with La Gazzetta dello Sport saying: "Leclerc debuts for Ferrari and is immediately fast."
But team boss Arrivabene is still backing Vettel.
"In the last few races we have seen that the real Vettel is back," he told Italy's Sky.
"Every human being goes through ups and downs and it's useless to point fingers at an individual," said Arrivabene.
"We all expected more from ourselves in 2018. You win and lose together. We made progress, but in the end we lost.
"We take second and third in the drivers' championship, but in formula one only the winner counts. But second and third is better than fourth or fifth," he added.
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I couldn't agree more with Arrivavene, Vettel is still in my view the best F1 driver. He has been very unfairly targeted by the English media that is very biased for Hamilton. I'm sure he will win big again in 2019.
I think if you remove those biased glasses and bother to look at journalists from around the world you'll see that what your saying doesn't smell too good. Even the Italian Media have been very, very critical of him, more so than many English papers. That said I still think he's a class act that hasn't benefitted from having a team mate that he knows he can beat 8 times out of 10 and has just had a couple of bad years at the same time as Hamilton has had two stunners.
I agree with Michael, media are back Lewis, even theyre trying to level him with great legend Schumacher before he get enough credit. Seb must fight in circuit and out of the circuit with some media.
Seb can't perform under pressure-that is the key difference between him and Lewis. Also, Toto does strategy /and 'what ifs' but the Italian boss does drive Seb and let's see how things go! Hence , no championship cups for Ferrari for years!
Without any doubt Seb has achieved all of his four championships very close to others and under severe pressure, last 5 years the main difference between him and Lewis is their CARS, nothing else. MB has a concrete advantage over SF, look at the last 5 years and see the points and gaps.
Yes totally agree i think Vettel is equal to any of the drivers in Equal cars remember Hamilton was gifted 3 races this year
Vettal is by far the better driver than Hamilton. Hamilton has always had the best package and has never had to fight with a mediocre car. In my opinion, the best two drivers in F1 are Vettal and Vestappen, Now Alonso has gone to Indycar.
Hamilton is a great driver. But not a 5 time champion. He has won the past three because it has always been against one drive, either Rosberg who he also lost too and Vettel who he and Ferrari made mistakes. You can not compare the boy to Schumacher!
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