‘Got so nasty’… When Sebastian Vettel landed himself in ‘trouble’ with Ferrari management

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Sebastian Vettel never managed to win the world championship at Ferrari, but his move to the Italian giants shouldn’t be dismissed as a total failure. Vettel shocked the world of Formula 1 when he left Red Bull at the end of 2014.

Vettel was a product of the Red Bull driver academy and he’d won four straight world championships with the team between 2010 and 2013. The 2014 season was tricky as Mercedes asserted their dominance and newcomer Daniel Ricciardo comfortably beat Vettel, but his exit was still a surprise.

Over the course of his six seasons at Maranello, the German would win 14 Grands Prix. Only Michael Schumacher (72) and Niki Lauda (15) have taken more victories in scarlet red.

He came closest to achieving his ultimate goal in the 2017 campaign, when he finished within 50 points of Lewis Hamilton. Vettel had also been in a strong position in 2018 but his season unravelled after he crashed out of his home race in Germany from the lead.

The following year, academy driver Charles Leclerc graduated from Sauber and the team began to gravitate towards him. The Monegasque would deliver their first Italian GP victory since Fernando Alonso in 2010.

In 2020, Ferrari decided to move on from Vettel as they struck a deal with Carlos Sainz. The four-time champion dropped to Aston Martin, where he spent the final two years of his career.

Ferrari were angered by Sebastian Vettel’s attempts to manage the team

Vettel finished in the top three of the world championship in three of his first four years with Ferrari. The only exception was 2016.

That year, he failed to win a race or bag a pole position, picking up just seven podiums. Former teammate Ricciardo pipped him up to third in the standings.

Ferrari also finished third in the constructors’, a whopping 367 points behind champions Mercedes. As he tried to build the team into a rival for the Silver Arrows, he clashed with their management.

According to The Race’s Ben Anderson, Vettel tried to ‘run the team from the cockpit’. This angered the then-team principal Maurizio Arrivabene, who reminded him that he was an ’employee’.

Anderson said: “Vettel had that Schumacher approach of no stone unturned, look at everything, stay as late as possible, pour over everything, almost try to run the team from the cockpit. And actually, that’s what got him into trouble with Ferrari’s management in those early years.

“Arrivabene was very much ‘you’re an employee’. And part of the reason 2016 got so nasty is that Vettel was in the management side overstating his position as this kind of fulcrum.”

The similarity Nico Rosberg sees between Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo

Vettel would outlast Arrivabene at Ferrari, with the team bringing in Mattia Binotto as his replacement in early 2019. Binotto would oversee the acquisition of Sainz a year later.

While he’s unquestionably one of the biggest legends in the sport, Vettel’s heyday was a distant memory by the time he retired. He finished 12th in the 2022 championship with just 37 points.

For that reason, Nico Rosberg sees similarities between Vettel and Ricciardo, neither of whom enjoyed a ‘worthy’ goodbye. The former was at least able to complete the season, while the latter lost his drive with six races remaining.

There have been murmurs of a potential comeback this year but Adrian Newey can’t see Vettel returning. The legendary designer, who formed an unstoppable partnership with him at Red Bull, feels he’s ‘moved on’.