Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko says Ferrari’s plan at the Russian GP proves Sebastian Vettel is no longer their priority.
Starting third behind teammate Charles Leclerc on pole, the Scuderia made an arrangement whereby the Monegasque would slipstream Vettel down to Turn 2 at the start, but the German would give up the lead if he got ahead.
That’s exactly how it played out, only the four-time world champion then refused to allow Leclerc by past, claiming the gap was too big and Lewis Hamilton was too close.
“I still believe it is a luxury because we have two fantastic drivers,” Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto was quoted by Crash.net post-race.
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“Our judgement that the start went as planned, and therefore we thought it was right to ask Seb to swap the positions.
“We initially asked Seb to give the position back, but fair enough to say at that stage in the race that maybe Charles was not close enough, and we would have lost some time on track.
“Later on, Seb was quite fast and gained some track advantage on Charles. So we knew that we could decide to do it later on.”
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was asked his opinion on what happened and whether he was happy for a more settled situation between Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.
“It shows a few things, it’s very difficult to manage drivers that have the aspiration of winning the race, and we have had that in the past, and we still have it,” the Austrian said.
“We still have to discuss all the scenarios, and be aware of how the driver functions and respect it.”
As for whether Ferrari’s disharmony can help the Brackley-based team, he added: “I think that hasn’t won us the race, it’s a side story.
“But of course it was an additional endgame that needs to be covered from the management side.”
Regardless of everything that took place and its repercussions though, the Red Bull advisor believes the conclusion was clear.
“Although he was the fastest man in Russia, Ferrari sacrificed Sebastian,” Marko declared. “He has no future at Ferrari anymore.”