"Fernando had got it in his head that he could never win with Ferrari" - why Luca preferred Vettel

There's no way Vettel purposefully performed poorly. If the car was terrible then perhaps a case could be made but no driver gives up the chance to win podiums, races and especially not championships. I'm not saying Ricciardo had a great chance to win the title but I will argue that for a period he became a serious contender and here's why.

Ricciardo got 2nd in Australia before Red Bull were disqualified for using illegal fuel flow rates, he had a retirement the next race then had 2 4th places, 2 3rds and then got his first win in Canada. This is consistent form for a title contending team in the early phases of a season, he solidified 3rd place in the standings and was best of the rest behind Mercedes at this stage. He got another podium in the next 3 races before winning 2 on the trot in Hungary and Belgium and by this point the media were having a field day with the implosion at Mercedes, questions were raised about Hamilton leaving and Ricciardo was perceived by everybody as a serious threat for the title if Mercedes couldn't pull themselves together. After that Hamilton took control but for a brief moment after Spa, with 7 races left, Ricciardo was undoubtedly seen as a title contender.

And people want to believe Vettel would purposefully underperformed in a year where his teammate had even the slightest whiff of winning the championship in the same car? No way. Drivers are egotistical maniacs and have too much pride. Vettel will have watched Ricciardo put pressure on Mercedes, while Mercedes were fighting amongst each other, and he would have tried everything to make sure Ricciardo couldn't beat him to a title in the same car. That is how competitive people really think. He would be worried about the embarrassment of losing a title in this way and his pride wouldn't have allowed it. After all the criticism that constantly gets thrown his way about special treatment in a dominant car he would have wanted to prove everybody wrong.

At the end of the day, after getting soundly beaten by Ricciardo, Vettel was just lucky that everything fell into place for him to join Ferrari in a smooth transition. He's also very lucky that Ferrari have decided to keep Kimi Raikkonen instead of hiring somebody who will win races and take points away from him on a consistent basis.

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