Brawn: Leclerc's arrival will be an incentive for Vettel

Next year the stage is set for an intriguing sideshow when Leclerc and Vettel share a garage. The four times F1 World Champion has pretty much owned his teammate Kimi Raikkonen since he arrived at the Scuderia in 2015, but 2019 will be a different story.

Up steps Ferrari's young protege, Leclerc. Maranello banking on youth when they throw the highly rated 21-year-old in the deep end. There is unlikely to be any team orders to curtail the young charge who has little to lose in the contest between youth and experience, while his 31-year-old teammate does.

Vettel will be excused a case of deja vu on two fronts, the first is that it seems like not long ago that Seb himself was the young gun on the rise. Secondly, the last time a young gun stepped up into his domain - Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull in 2014 - history shows the four times F1 World Champion came off second best.

In his end of season recap, Brawn said of Leclerc's promotion, "The young Monegasque has been truly impressive in terms of speed and talent but now he has to make a significant step up. I’m sure his arrival at Ferrari will be a boost for the team and an added incentive for Vettel next year."

"Vettel was a worthy opponent for Lewis Hamilton, but unlike the Englishman, the German failed to win all of the races he should have, nor could he win when he wasn’t favourite to do so."

Mistakes would be an apt word if forced to describe Ferrari's past season, while Vettel is seeking performance from his engineers they may request their star to up the consistency.

Brawn believes the soul-searching at Maranello is inevitable, "When one doesn’t win a world championship that had seemed very winnable, it’s inevitable that questions are asked in order to understand what went wrong."

"When the team in question is Ferrari, then the question is not just asked at the top but it becomes almost a national question in Italy, as I was able to see for myself during my decade in Maranello.

"Ferrari is condemned for finishing second in both championships, as it’s simply not good enough at home. And yet, there can be cause for satisfaction in Maranello, because over two years the team has managed to close a performance gap to Mercedes that in 2016 amounted to a second a lap."

"The shake up of the technical management instigated by Sergio Marchionne bore fruit this year, with many new faces on the front line, but I think most importantly it resulted in a new approach to the way the team operated and that gave the team a new spirit."

Brawn's 2018 season summary is a good read. Full report here:

https://www.grandprix247.com/2018/12/07/brawn-report-an-intense-and-action-packed-season/