Coronel: Vettel 'broken'

Sebastian Vettel is "broken".

That is the view of former racing driver Tom Coronel, who thinks Vettel's difficult 2018 season with Ferrari may have given the early upper hand for 2019 to new teammate Charles Leclerc.

"Vettel is broken because of last year," Coronel told the Dutch publication Formule 1.

"He will not correct that. Ferrari should now let the drivers race freely, because youngsters are not so good at listening."

Long-time Ferrari manager Massimo Rivola, now CEO at Aprilia, thinks Vettel might indeed be challenged by his young new teammate in 2019.

At the same time, Rivola also worries about Leclerc.

"He's a strong boy, but the earliness (of his move to Ferrari) can be a double edged sword, because you cannot always win on the first try," he said.

"He is used to doing that so we will need to see how he reacts mentally if he cannot," Rivola told Italy's Autosprint.

But if Leclerc is strong, Rivola thinks Ferrari could be in for a Alonso-Hamilton battle a la 2007.

"I think it's a fitting example but I think Ferrari would manage it better than McLaren did," he said.

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