Vettel’s objective is to push along with Leclerc

Sebastian Vettel doesn’t care about status within Ferrari, rather he just wants to work with Charles Leclerc to turn the SF90 into a regular race winner.

Although Ferrari walked away from pre-season testing as the team to beat it wasn’t until last weekend’s Belgian GP, round 13 of the championship, that they bagged their first win of the season.

Charles Leclerc took the chequered flag at Spa, a second ahead of runaway championship leader Lewis Hamilton.

Vettel, who played the role of bollard to help Leclerc win, was a disappointing P4.

This led to comments from pundits that Vettel is now Ferrari’s number ‘2’ driver.

The German says all he is worried about is working with Leclerc to turn Ferrari into regular race winners.

“Our car is not where we want it to be,” Vettel told the official F1 website.

“[We don’t] have the car and ability to win every race so far and that is our objective, so I think it serves [Charles and I] if we push in the same direction, because I believe one day we will have that car and then we can fight it out.

“From a team point of view, I think the most important thing is that we work together, not against each other…

“Otherwise it would be a bit of a waste of energy.

“Obviously we’ve started off in a good place for the second half and hopefully we can keep that up.

“But we know also being realistic that Mercedes are the clear favourite. As I said, they’ve been in a position to win every race this year.

“That’s something we haven’t been, and we need to get there. That’s the point.”

Arriving at Monza, Ferrari’s home race, many are predicting that the Scuderia with their straightline speed will be the ones to beat.

Vettel isn’t that confident.

“We’re not the clear favourites,” he said.

“There are signs that we are aware of and put us in a good position, but I think we have to be carefully optimistic and realistic.

“There are a lot of elements during a Grand Prix that can make a difference.

“One lap [in qualifying] is one thing, but obviously there are a lot of laps on Sunday, plus the weather, plus plus plus…

“It’s difficult to predict but certainly I think here is the time to sort of over-deliver.

“It’s a big weekend, so hopefully we can make it count this time.

“I think we have a good chance so we’ll see. We’re ready.”

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