Ferrari's announcement that Kimi Raikkonen will no longer be driving for the team next season, with Charles Leclerc set to replace him, has certainly been a big talking point in the Formula 1 driver market. Here at Zarb times we shall analyse the pros and cons of this move.
Pros
- Leclerc will be 21 next October, which is young. With him being so young, Leclerc has time on his side, and, whilst at Ferrari there always is a certain level of pressure, expectations might not be as high. If Ferrari manage him well, Leclerc may very much thrive in the Ferrari seat and Ferrari could have a driver for the next 10-15 years, and even if Vettel is the lead driver for the time being, he is 31 years old and is not getting any younger, so Ferrari are doing well by building for the future and investing in one of their own in Leclerc.
- Leclerc is a very talented driver and has an impressive record in the junior categories, where he won both the Formula 2 and GP3 championships. This could help to provide more competition to Sebastian Vettel, as, with all due respect, Vettel has never really had a team-mate competing hard against him, except in 2014 when Ricciardo joined Red Bull. Having arguably 2 extremely strong drivers could well help Ferrari to win the constructors' championship, something which they have not done since 2008. There could be disadvantages regarding this, however, which I will speak about later.
- As revealed, Kimi Raikkonen will be moving to Sauber. For Sauber, this is a great move. Raikkonen is an extremely experienced as well as talented driver who could well help with the car development, similar to Michael Schumacher when he drove for Mercedes between 2010 and 2012. Raikkonen as well is a very popular driver and has a big fanbase, particularly in Finland, which could well be a boost for Sauber in terms of marketing.
Cons
- Leclerc will be joining Ferrari after only one season in Formula 1, and he may lack certain experience. Admittedly, when Lewis Hamilton joined McLaren back in 2007, everyone thought it was an extremely risky move, and the rest is history as they say. The same argument can be made when Ricciardo was promoted to Red Bull, as well as for Kimi Raikkonen when he entered Formula 1 having just done 23 single-seater races. So, it does not mean that inexperience can't result in success. However, with Sauber (no disrespect intended), Leclerc could afford to make mistakes without lots of media exposure or pressure - with Ferrari this will likely not be the case. Also, you could make the argument that if Leclerc spent another year with Sauber he would be more ready to drive with Ferrari for the 2020 season. Leclerc is undoubtedly a very talented driver, though there's an underlying question: can Leclerc handle the pressure that comes with being a Ferrari driver?
- If Leclerc impresses straight away at Ferrari, could this cause friction between him and Vettel? This could also cause problems for the Ferrari management. Historically Ferrari have been known for using a driver hierarchy, e.g. during the Schumacher era, Schumacher was the designated no.1, with Rubens Barrichello performing the so to speak role of 'back-up' driver. Arguably, the management of its drivers this year (Vettel and Raikkonen) has been very questionable, particularly in the last round in Monza. Mercedes arguably will have the best driver pairing for 2019, as in Hamilton they have the best driver on the grid, and Bottas is a good back-up driver, and both drivers are very experienced. I personally am not a fan of team orders, no.1/2 drivers and that kind of thing, but sometimes to win the World Championship you need to approach it that way, which is what Mercedes are doing right now although it is not their traditional way of doing it, historically they have been known to let both their drivers race. Of course letting your drivers both race carries its own risks, and you could say that Mercedes did pay a price for that - when they had Hamilton together with Nico Rosberg, they clashed on track quite a few times and had a rather fractious relationship, however, Mercedes were so dominant between 2014 and 2016 that they could afford to let them race, perhaps now they cannot afford to do so given the threat of Ferrari. The Vettel-Leclerc pairing could lead to a situation similar to that McLaren faced way back in 2007 between Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, which led to Alonso leaving the team at the end of that season - could something similar arise? Only time will tell, and all will be revealed in the next few months.
- Vettel, for all his talent at the wheel, makes lots of mistakes when under pressure, and they have been rather costly ones for that matter; think back to Baku where he locked up and ran wide when trying to overtake Bottas for the lead on the Safety Car restart and he ended up finishing fourth when he was running second, France where at the start he locked up and ended up colliding with Bottas, Germany where he crashed out from the lead when he was under arguably no pressure at all, and Hamilton ended up winning that race and taking the lead in the World Championship, whilst also last time out in Monza Vettel made a very costly mistake when he should have accepted that Hamilton had overtaken him and ceded second place, there was a whole race left to be able to catch back up and instead Hamilton won and Vettel finished fourth, in a race where Ferrari should have won. If he continues to make these mistakes, will Leclerc be able to step up in his place? It certainly is no small ask. Also, another question lies here: if Leclerc impresses straight away at Ferrari, will Vettel panic under pressure and make more mistakes? It's certainly not an inconceivable prospect.