Mamba wrote: ↑15 Aug 2020, 22:38
ENGINE TUNER wrote: ↑15 Aug 2020, 18:19
The Ferrari was designed with only Vettel's input last year and last year LEC DOMINATED him, it's not the car, LEC is just a much better and faster driver. Vettel was never that good, and he was always mistake and crash prone. Today VET was as close to LEC as he has been all season.
VET may have an outside chance of beating LEC tomorrow with a med/hard 1 stop strategy. It seems nobody likes the hards but maybe the track conditions will suit them better.
So was the 2017 and 2018 cars... Easily the best cars Ferrari had in the current era. And yes, Kimi had his input to the 2019 car too before that is thrown in as well. But yes, let's discount that Ferrari messed up on the chassis side proper last year and lay it at Vettel's feet for struggling.
It is widely documented that Vettel likes a planted rear while Leclerc can live with a difficult car much like Max at RB can while the other RB driver struggles. Look only at Gasly in the TR & AT. Stunning performances. Ferrari designed the SF1000 with a monster engine in hand which was taken away at short notice. Now they have to slice off DF away from what they had in mind to remain semi competitive. Result is a poorer car which Leclerc can handle while Vettel just can't.
We can debate all we like but fact remains if the car doesn't suit you or you struggle to predict it you won't be fast. Yes, he should be able to adapt better but if you throw in a very fast team mate and a team that clearly doesn't want you there and nobody will perform well in that car/team.
I think it’s simply that Leclerc can drive around an issue more than Vettel. Additionally, I remember very early on when he was with Alfa, he spun a lot and spoke about having to change his setup/driving style from F2 to F1 because he naturally prefers a slight bias towards oversteer, where in F1 that is less achievable.
I think this years ferrari is loosey goosey at the rear, and that kind of suits leclerc more + leclerc is just a little more flexible with what he has underneath him. It has long been known that Seb requires a planted rear end. I don’t think that makes him a bad driver. Kimi likes a pointy front end, and we’ve seen a number of times how the absence of that impacts his performance.
Everyone is so binary. You’re either good or bad - but people forget the many, many complexities associated with determining ‘good’ vs ‘bad’. Is leclerc better? Maybe. I think he benefits from being more adaptable, and we’re simply seeing that one strength in action against Vettel. Is Vettel good too? Yes of course.