Arrivabene on the Vettel-Leclerc rivalry for 2019

Ferrari have taken the leap of faith and signed young Charles Leclerc for the 2019 season. Leclerc’s impressive season with Sauber caught the imagination of the entire F1 fraternity, but so much did he impress Sergio Marchionne, that he immediately wanted the young kid to be a part of the Ferrari F1 team from 2019 onwards.

Raikkonen was asked to vacate the seat for the young driver and the Finn found abode in Sauber.

Now, with the kind of season Leclerc is having with Sauber, a lot of fans believe that he could be challenging Vettel next season(especially after the number of mistakes Vettel has made in 2018) or might even overtake the 4 time champion.

Arrivabene has spoken about the impending partnership and how Ferrari would approach it.

He also spoke about how Leclerc would find it difficult to actually challenge Vettel, and how it could be a little unhealthy if the duo were not challenging for 1-2.

“I’ve always said that Charles is a very talented driver, that’s why we brought him to Ferrari, we would have to go back to the Rodriguez brothers’ time to find pilots – as young as Leclerc.” Arrivabene said.

He also spoke about how Leclerc would find it difficult to actually challenge Vettel, and how it could be a little unhealthy if the duo were not challenging for 1-2, something that Enzo Ferrari used to say.

“Enzo Ferrari always said that the first rival of a driver is his teammate, as long as they fight for the first and second positions, that they are rivals, it is fine, if they are rivals that clash between them, it is not right

“But with all the honesty and seriousness, I think Leclerc needs to gain experience in order to do the job, he needs to win races, but the main objective is to gain experience and always do the best he can. It’s too early to think that they will fight in the future to you . I hope so, but I think it’s a little early.” he added.

Do you think Leclerc will be Vettel’s number 2 next year?