The moment Sebastian Vettel realised Ferrari weren’t ‘good enough’ to win the F1 championship

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Sebastian Vettel has explained why Ferrari failed to win the world championship during his time at Maranello. He came up against the mighty combination of Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes.

Vettel made 118 appearances for Ferrari between his 2015 arrival and his departure at the end of 2020, which ranks him fifth on the all-time list. Only Michael Schumacher (out on his own with 72) and Niki Lauda (15) can better his win tally in red (14).

In 2017, Vettel was only three points behind Hamilton after the Italian GP, race 13 of 20. The gap increased to 46 by the end of the season.

At the same stage of the 2018 season, the German was just 17 points behind. By the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi, Hamilton’s lead had ballooned to 88.

Sebastian Vettel says Ferrari’s limitations dawned on him in 2019

While Vettel was guilty of making some mistakes in key moments, he says Ferrari’s car development let them down. Mercedes found more performance in the second half of both seasons and left them behind.

While Ferrari were the quickest on the straights in 2019, Mercedes stretched their advantage. That saw the Silver Arrows win 15 races to their three.

Vettel’s new teammate, Charles Leclerc, was ‘over the moon’ just to be fighting at the front. But the four-time world champion was realising that Ferrari weren’t strong enough to achieve his ultimate objective.

He told F1’s Beyond the Grid podcast: “’17, we started off really well, we were missing ingredients, Mercedes beat us. ’18, we were more complete, our car was better, our package was better – we didn’t make it, Mercedes were stronger at the end of the season.

“2019 was a strange year because our car was okay, our engine was really, really good. We struggled to make real progress as a team – closing the gap, getting stronger in developing the car, especially the second part of the season.

“I really, really wanted to win the championship with Ferrari – trust me. I really wanted it so bad, and it didn’t happen.

“2019 was the break year for myself. I started to feel like, ‘We’re not making it, we’re not good enough.’

“At the same time, Charles comes in. Charles had so much energy. It was a completely different time in his career.

“When we finished fifth and sixth or third and fourth – I was spoiled [because] I won four championships, so many races, so many poles, all I was interested in was winning – he was over the moon. That’s when I started to struggle a bit.”

Why Sebastian Vettel’s advice is of no use to Lewis Hamilton

Neither Vettel nor Fernando Alonso were able to end Ferrari’s drought. Hamilton is the next F1 superstar who’s looking to break the cycle.

Vettel and Alonso both won Grands Prix during their debut season, but Hamilton hasn’t even scored a podium.

Before he arrived at Ferrari, Vettel urged Hamilton to learn Italian. Unfortunately, time isn’t on the Briton’s side.

Given that he’s due to turn 41 this winter, Hamilton’s stay is likely to be short-term. With a 24-race schedule, it will be difficult for him to reach the required level of fluency.

For Vettel, knowing Italian helped – but he wishes that he could have spent more time in the country to truly understand its culture.