Quote:
Originally Posted by Adam43
I suppose, ultimately, there is no difference.  You are right.
I just feel that the majority of times he’s just being beaten. That probably then leads to a natural leaning towards Vettel in the team. And then there are the times that he is actual asked to be behind Vettel. I think that is probably 70:20:10 (ish). The 10 isn’t the lead story or representative of the situation.
Monza was a good example of the situation for me. Vettel was removed from the situation. Any inherent favouritism towards Vettel meant getting behind Raikkonen in that situation! In what is considered the best race car he needed to get a few seconds gap to cover off Hamilton. He failed. 
For me the narrative is that he isn’t up to being a number 1 not that he is employed to be a number 2. |
Definitely. If Kimi was demonstrably faster than Vettel on a consistent basis - Ferrari would be more likely to throw their support behind him. He's number 2 because he's not quite on the level of Seb, not number 2 because Ferrari have pre-ordained this arrangement.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Adam43
I see your point. However, what’s to lose? Throw him in the deep end! Why not? If he’s good he’ll be fine. Also let him have a difficult year in a top car. That’s real experience.
Max was thrown into a good car pretty early. He’s acquitted himself well, because he’s a talent.
Was a top talent really ruined because they went too early? A decent, but not great, talent maybe, but a great one?
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I guess it depends on whether Ferrari want the WDC or the WCC.
Don't get me wrong, Leclerc seems like he is going to be an elite talent.
However there will be moments, considering he is still young and learning, where he makes mistakes and will lose Ferrari points. Now should he do that in a Haas or Sauber, that's not too bad because the loss will be small if any, and you can put that down to learning experience.
Put him in a Ferrari, he's fighting in the top 4-6 consistently, he throws it off track and loses a podium place, valuable points, pressure intensifies.
I guess we'll only know once he's there, but I feel it would be beneficial for him to have another year in the middle of the grid as his apprenticeship.
Having said that, if I was a betting man, I'm putting my money on Ferrari getting him in for 2019.