Marko: Leclerc contributing to Ferrari tension
Charles Leclerc is contributing to the tension at Ferrari.
That is the view of Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko, at the same time as F1 sporting boss Ross Brawn said the Leclerc-Vettel driver pairing is "potentially explosive".
Marko thinks Ferrari is also to blame.
"Vettel was ahead (at Sochi), so Leclerc complained and then the engineer said 'Don't worry, we'll fix it with the pitstop'," Marko told Servus TV. "What that means is 'we'll manipulate the pitstop'. That's against fairness and against sport," he charged. "The whole situation is difficult enough for Ferrari, so why worsen it by consciously playing the drivers against one another?"
But Marko said it is not new territory for the Maranello team.
"Ferrari loves these games, although most of the time it doesn't turn out well. But that's just Ferrari.
"It's a different culture," he added.
Marko also thinks Leclerc brought on Sebastian Vettel's refusal to comply with team orders at Sochi.
"If Vettel didn't stick to the rule at Sochi, then Leclerc didn't stick to the rule in Monza," he said. "He was supposed to give Vettel a slipstream in qualifying. He's definitely playing his part in the tension."
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"..."The whole situation is difficult enough for Ferrari, so why worsen it by consciously playing the drivers against one another?"..."
For once I agree with Marko.
I already made comments on this subject and I still think that Leclerc is expecting Ferrari to do whatever he demands from them and obviously Vettel is on the receiving end of it and he needs to protect his own position within Ferrari and show them that he has plenty of fire in him to contain young Charles and is more than capable to beat him in future races as he would have done in Sochi if it had not been frustrated by the Ferrari's decision to favour Leclerc who started from the pole. The unit failure was the last straw for Seb as he was betrayed by the team .How can he win when his own team makes such decisions which harm him on the track?
Ferrari made a big mistake in publically naming a nr1 driver (Vettel) at the start of the season, they didn't have to, unless Vettel insisted of course, but it's backfired and cost Leclerc points, a position higher up the table and Ferrari are looking stupid.
Leclerc is clearly the better driver in terms of outright speed and points on the table despite Ferrari favouring Vettel to begin with, they need to be careful as Hamilton's job might come up in few years time and Leclerc might just remember Ferrari's behaviour!
This season indeed reminds me of the 2007 season, you know 2x WC Alonso VS Hamilton. We know how that ended up... Hopefully for Vettel, he will make better choices.
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