It’s pretty clear the Ferrari/Sebastian Vettel relationship is dead as it begins its final contracted season.
The four-time Formula 1 champion is bewildered and angry that there wasn’t even a negotiation for a contract – just a phone call telling him there’d be no place for him after this season.
So angry he wanted to confirm that detail to the world, as soon as he was asked last week.
Then there were shades of suspicion in his public questioning of how his car had become so undriveable in the race after feeling OK the day before.
Team boss Mattia Binotto was clearly less than delighted at having to face questions about Vettel’s frank telling of the contract non-negotiations, and even less impressed with his drive in the race, a lowly 10th place finish after clumsy contact with Carlos Sainz Jr’s McLaren.
“He’s running wild there,” said a wry paddock observer of Vettel. “He’s going to integrate there like a hammer in spin dryer for the rest of the year.”
It’s difficult to see the contract running its course.
Ferrari has been here before. It infamously paid Kimi Raikkonen to leave a year early at the end of 2009. It fired Rene Arnoux after the first race of 1985 (pictured below).
This looks like a failed marriage seeing out their final days until the house is sold and they can go their separate ways.
Given that Vettel’s non-contract created a trigger effect of Sainz being recruited to replace him, Daniel Ricciardo filling Sainz’s place at McLaren and Fernando Alonso’s return to replace Ricciardo, could those moves now all happen sooner rather than later?
There will be some financial equations to work out, but given that the thing would be driven by Ferrari they would surely not be insurmountable. This, after all, is the team that was paying Raikkonen not to drive in 2010 and for Alonso to drive for McLaren in 2015.
At Renault, Ricciardo and Cyril Abiteboul certainly seem to have their enthusiasm for each other well under control. McLaren and Sainz are caught in the middle, perfectly happy with each other and looking forward to a great final season together.
But if push came to shove, would McLaren be disappointed to get Ricciardo early, would Sainz be OK with wearing red this year?
Having Alonso sooner rather than later would be box office for F1 too at a very difficult time.
And Vettel? He could lick his wounds, maybe observe the progress of Racing Point’s pink Mercedes this year, with a possible view to being the face of Aston Martin’s F1 programme in 2021.
