Sebastian Vettel was told to stop trying to run the team and just drive during his Ferrari stint, claims F1 insider

F1 pundit Mark Hughes claimed that former four-time F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel was told by former Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene to focus on driving instead of running the team. The German driver shocked the world of motorsport after he announced during the 2014 season that he would be leaving Red Bull to join Ferrari.

The move came as a surprise to many as Vettel had won four consecutive driver's championships with the Austrian team from 2010 to 2013 after initially joining them in 2009. He was unable to match the pace of his then-teammate Daniel Ricciardo in the same car and was winless in 2014.

In his column for The Race, Hughes believed that the circumstances changed after Sebastian Vettel joined Ferrari as he was handpicked by former chairman Luca di Montezemolo as a replacement for Fernando Alonso.

However, di Montezemolo resigned from his position in late 2014 and was succeeded by Sergio Marchionne. The F1 pundit wrote:

"Seb had every bit as focused an ambition as Alonso but an easier personality, and he took many of his cues in the way he worked from Schumacher. It might have worked. Except di Montezemolo was gone by the time Vettel arrived. So he was never empowered in the way Luca had told him he would be."

"Instead he was told – by Maurizio Arrivabene, lieutenant to new corporate boss Sergio Marchionne – to stop trying to run the team and just drive. Meantime, the bosses were thinking, ‘How good is he, anyway? Let’s get our young charge in alongside’. Hence Leclerc’s arrival and Vettel’s competitive collapse in 2020," Hughes added.

Sebastian Vettel was unable to add to his championship tally and left the team with 14 race wins at the end of the 2020 season.

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Sebastian Vettel gives his take on Lewis Hamilton's move to Ferrari

Former Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel stated that he had full confidence in his ex-rival Lewis Hamilton's abilities as he prepares to drive for the most iconic F1 team in 2025.

Speaking with Sky Germany last year, the former Aston Martin F1 driver believed that the seven-time world champion would rely on his experience to adjust to a new environment quickly. Vettel said:

“He has been around for a very long time, has a lot of experience, and has had more success in his career than any other Formula 1 driver. He will cope with it, but the transition to a new team is always difficult, especially at the beginning."

Lewis Hamilton will replace Carlos Sainz in Ferrari, who replaced Sebastian Vettel in 2021. The British driver will have only a few test runs in older cars before getting in the 2025 challenger in Bahrain at the official pre-season testing in late February.