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It was not the first time and that is why many did not take us by surprise. We simply reaffirm our idea that Sebastian Vettel is a pilot who has a hard time fulfilling his part of the deal. It has happened in the past when he was young and ambitious and it still is now that he has experience and four titles. It is hard for him to carry out orders, he has a natural tendency to disobey.

In Russia, Ferrari had devised a plan that could work. Charles Leclerc had been the fastest throughout the weekend and had shown it again on Saturday to achieve his fourth consecutive pole . The problem in Sochi is that if you could choose you would never go out there first. The long straight of more than a kilometer until the first braking is a territory of rebufos. Getting ahead makes you very vulnerable. Leaving behind another car makes you faster and you can win up to 15 meters to another car without rebufo.

The problem was Lewis Hamilton . He had stolen Vettel's wallet in the standings and the Briton's second position gave him a great option to take advantage of the Leclerc rebuild. Ferrari knew it and studied the way it didn't happen. Simple: Leclerc rebuilds Vettel at the start, facilitates overtaking and when the positions are seated he would return the position to Leclerc.

The first part of the plan went perfect. Vettel got first and the two Ferrari commanded the race. The second part of the plan was a fiasco. Simply because Vettel refused to return the position to Leclerc. First he negotiated a couple of laps while pressing hard to distance himself from Leclerc. The Monegasque asked for explanations by saying that he had complied and regretting having to go in dirty air punishing his tires as Hamilton approached. Vettel disobeyed and Ferrari had to modify the strategy to get Leclerc to get ahead. They stopped him before and left Vettel a few more laps on the track with used tires. An infallible system against wayward pilots. The German tried to stop him before on the radio, but the wall was inflexible.

With everything already in place and Vettel again portrayed as a disobedient and selfish child, the failure of the Ferrari No. 5 arrived. As if it were a divine punishment, the sinner Vettel had to turn off his car and leave. The reliability problem had collateral damage. The place where Vettel was parked forced the race direction to take out the Virtual Security Car. This forces all cars to slow down and that makes pit stops instead of 27 seconds cost only 18.

Open bar in the pit lane , half of the pit grill and between them the two Mercedes. Hamilton came out ahead to lead the race and Bottas behind Leclerc. A questionable stop by Leclerc in a period of Safety Car, put him third on the track with soft tires, but could not overtake Bottas or avoid the double of Mercedes. It was a total disaster. Because of Vettel's indiscipline and his reliability problem, Ferrari went from being able to double up to see how his rival did.

Serious gestures and long faces after the race. A few words of balm in Ferrari to try to mitigate the controversy and a capital slander of Vettel ensuring that he had fulfilled his part of the plan (he might not know that we had all heard what happened with the radios). And while, Leclerc calm, serene, relaxed. He no longer gives his partner lessons only on the track, also outside it.

Vettel may be a four-time champion, but in 16 races Leclerc has shown the world that he is faster than him, that he works as a team better than him and that, despite the age difference, he behaves more mature than he does. If not for the precedents I would say that everything was the result of impotence, of despair. However, Vettel has shown over the years that fulfilling orders is not good.

The Scuderia again lost a grand prize in which they were dominant and we have already lost count. Lucky that this year they do not fight for the World Cup. Even so, I am convinced that Leclerc will be runner-up this year and that Vettel, in spite of himself, cannot help it.

Ferrari was the controversy and Carlos Sainz the feeling. Classification lap impossible, brutal exit even ahead of Hamilton to put a few seconds third and sixth at the end. First of the rest of the world and McLaren that keeps improving. In 2021 Mercedes engines ... It's going to be hard to wait.

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  • Sebastian Vettel
  • Lewis Hamilton
  • Formula 1
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  • Carlos Sainz Jr
  • Mercedes GP

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