Vettel: Ferrari's 2015 Reboot

When we learned of Sebastian Vettel’s decision to leave Red Bull and join Ferrari, long time home of his childhood idol Michael Schumacher, we were quick to judge, as we had judged Lewis Hamilton for making his move to Mercedes AMG. Look where Lewis is standing now. Granted, his move was after a few years of “rebuilding” where the team was concentrating on the rule changes for 2014, where they would be years ahead, and seconds ahead per lap.

This move for Vettel shows he is ready to work for a team with a strong and storied history in the sport we call ‘F1’. It also shows he’s ready to put up with some lackluster years, working to make history as his idol did not too long ago. As the winningest team in Formula 1, Ferrari has been the standard of all drivers. Watching his interview, you can tell he is in awe of his current position. He had some great years in the Red Bull organization, but after this year, you could tell he was ready to move to a team that would mold around him again.

Watching this test at Fiorano, the engineers and Vettel are working on what kind of information they can glean from each other. For the next few years, they will be working together very closely, and having a drive in a car the engineers know, will allow them information about what kind of car Vettel likes.You can hear on the in lap, what Seb wants the car to do in what corners. More curb on that corner; the tires aren’t working in this corner. That type of communication is what the engineers need from drivers to mold and shape the car to the drivers specification.“il mio Primo giorno in Ferrari”With his bright white helmet emblazoned with this statement, Vettel took to Fiorano in the F2012. He rowed through the gears on his out lap, and then put down a quick lap, followed by the in lap, in which he waved to the Tifosi, clamoring up the fence to get a glimpse of Vettel.In the interview, he mentions how he remembers trying to climb the fence to get a view of Schumacher when he was a boy racing karts in Maranello.He mentioned that the experience is “magical” just as others have suggested to him. I hope for his sake, he can drag Ferrari up by the bootstraps, and deliver some wins in a few years. While they are many championships ahead in F1 history, they haven’t won a Constructor’s Championship since 2007.As many have suggested in the past, we will see the true strength of Vettel in the coming years. The obvious first test will be the comparison to Raikkonen, and then his improvement over the year’s races. Will he be able to help develop the car? Or will he be left behind as he was in 2014? We can’t wait to find outTaekn with permission from Jeoff Trocchio.