F1 News
Hakkinen believes Ferrari didn't swap drivers around to give Vettel motivation
After almost 13 months without a Formula 1 race win and plenty of questions raised over his level of talent and future, Sebastian Vettel finally stepped on the top step of the podium. Charles Leclerc started ahead of Vettel as Ferrari's strategy gave the German an undercut, but the team didn't swap their drivers back.
Leclerc and Vettel didn't really engage in a conversation immediately after the race as a bit of driver politics got between the two. Mika Hakkinen believes Ferrari didn't order a driver switch because a win for Vettel should give the four-time world champion some needed motivation.
"There is a debate over whether Sebastian should have been asked to give the lead back to Charles, but after a year without a win, it was clearly important for him to stay in front and take the victory," Hakkinen reported in his weekly Unibet column.
"Perhaps Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto felt that a victory for Sebastian, coming after two wins for Charles, would give the team balance, motivate Sebastian and help to move the whole team forward. Achieving a 1-2 victory was the ultimate goal, and it seems Ferrari did not mind in which order they finished."
Either way, Ferrari have now won the last three races and demonstrated they can compete on virtually any type of circuit. Mercedes have won just one race out of the last five events.