Sebastian Vettel will speak up if Ferrari favours Leclerc

Sebastian Vettel has denied speculation that Ferrari is favouring Charles Leclerc, saying “at the moment” they are receiving equal treatment.

Earlier this year Vettel was informed by Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto that 2020 will be his final season racing in red.

The decision came as a “surprise” to Vettel as in the months prior, Binotto had been telling both the German and the rest of the world that Vettel was his number one pick to continue alongside Leclerc.

Ferrari’s announcement led to speculation that the Scuderia would favour Leclerc in this year’s championship given that he is its future while Vettel is on his way out.

Their results to date seem to hint at that.

While Leclerc has 45 points including two podium finishes, Vettel has bagged just 10 points with his best result his P6 at the Hungarian GP.

Last time out at Silverstone he even felt that his strategy was compromised by the team in order to get him out of the way for Leclerc, who had pitted earlier and was closing in.

Vettel to RTL: "Maybe we did not have the courage to let it come to Charles overtaking me, although he was on a different strategy and we prefered to rather pit me to avoid that."#F170

— tami. (@Vetteleclerc) August 9, 2020

Vettel, though, has denied that Ferrari is favouring his Monégasque team-mate.

Vettel told ESPN: “At the moment I would think so. If not, I would say otherwise.”

He added: “I am not trying to get into any of this. I am just trying to do my job.

“Obviously at the moment it’s not plain sailing and all calm, it’s a rather rough sea, but it is what it is.

“I have to do the best I can, which is staying focused and waking up in the morning trying to do the best I can and being fairly open-minded and trying to tackle it.

“I didn’t have great weekends at Silverstone – normally a track I really like.

“Didn’t get into a great feeling with the car and wasn’t able to extract as much as Charles was for whatever reasons.

“There’s not much I can do other than doing my job and working together with the guys around and my car to make sure we get the best package together.”

The German has been given a new chassis ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix with Ferrari hoping that helps Vettel resolve his ongoing issues.

Sebastian Vettel will have a new Ferrari chassis for the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix.https://t.co/NbWpXTOxdJ #SpanishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/30t1s1k1tg

— Planet F1 (@Planet_F1) August 12, 2020

The 33-year-old says only “time will tell” if it does the trick.

He added: “Obviously, in our businesses you’re measuring a lot of stuff, you put a lot of sensors on the car and normally you get a lot of answers but sometimes you don’t get the answers you like, and other times you’re not getting an answer at all.

“Pretty much a reflection of life as well where sometimes you’re looking for an answer but you might not get one as well. It’s important to trust in your feeling – the feeling that obviously as a driver you get when you drive the car, with what you can do and can’t do.

“Trust in yourself and keep going forwards, and I think that’s one of those situations that we are in. We might get an answer, we might never get an answer but ultimately it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t change anything in how we progress from here.”

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