How can Ferrari make Vettel-Leclerc work ?

The pair are staying together for 2020, but through most of this season team number one Vettel had his hierarchy challenged by the decade-younger Leclerc culminating in their (inevitable) collision during the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The harsh reality for 32-year-old Vettel is that he is up against a driver ten years his junior, a young gun full of ambition and drive, who represents the future for the Scuderia. Leclerc is there to stay and it is up to Vettel to shape up or ship out.

Mark Webber, who was Vettel's teammate at Red Bull and knows his modus operandi better than most, believes the German needs to seek professional advice over the "biggest off-season" of his F1 career.

"He's a winner and a fighter, but a small chink in his armour is that he is not a great listener," Webber told Channel 4. "But he needs to seek all the different professional advice that he can from people who might have also been on this journey."

Amid that sort of criticism of his disappointing 2019 season, 32-year-old Vettel headed into the winter break denying that he needs a full rethink.

"It's not rocket science, it's about changes in detail. Fewer interviews would help," joked Vettel.

But not everybody is laughing, La Stampa declared that "The only positive aspect of this black 2019 was the birth of his third child".

And even the biggest Ferrari fans are losing confidence.

"He has made many mistakes, rightly lost his number one status and will most likely not become a Ferrari world champion," Luigi Fornito, president of the Ferrari fan club of Cologne, told Kolner Express newspaper.

"To become world champion next year, Ferrari must decide on a number one driver," he added.

Notably, Leclerc beat Vettel in this year's championship. The newcomer getting the better of the guy in the garage next door. Rewind to 2014 when Daniel Ricciardo stepped up to Red Bull, where Vettel was fresh off four world titles in a row.

By the end of that season, Ricciardo thoroughly beat his illustrious teammate in the championship that year.

Vettel did not have the same problem dealing with Webber, or Kimi Raikkonen who was happy to play second fiddle to his teammate when they shared a pit at Ferrari, but the young guns have proven to be the quadruple F1 World Champion's Achille's heel.

Meanwhile, despite the tensions, team boss Mattia Binotto says he will allow his drivers to continue their fight in 2020, “If you look at the last races, they have been free to race and I think that is how we are going to start the next season.”

Pirelli CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera weighed in on the saga when he told Italian reporters, "All the champions who play on the same team risk stepping on each other's toes but everyone hopes they can live together."

However, he said he is enjoying the way Formula 1 is shaping up for 2020, "The competition has become very fascinating again with champions of different generations fighting wheel-to-wheel."