Like Schumacher once did: Vettel wants the title in Ferrari's fifth year

The record champion also once needed five attempts before racing to his World Championship triumph in a Ferrari for the first time. Four more titles followed. “The ultimate” for him would be a world championship with Ferrari, Vettel made it clear before the start of the season on March 17th in Melbourne.

With impressive best times in the test drives, Ferrari fueled optimism from the trip to Australia, which marks the beginning of another marathon season with 21 Grand Prix. Long-term rival Hamilton is happy to take up the feud gauntlet. “We don’t mind the challenge,” said the 33-year-old Brit. That his heavily renewed Silver Arrow still posed a few puzzles during the test rounds? “We have a mountain to climb, but we know how to do it,” said Hamilton with the composure of the series winner.

“Formula 1 is not a children’s birthday party.” Sebastian Vettel

Last year too, the Mercedes driver had difficulty getting going; Vettel won the first two races of the season. In the end, however, Hamilton was unstoppable and took ruthless advantage of his opponent's mishaps and mistakes. It was probably one of the worst defeats for Vettel, who won all of his four World Cup trophies in the Red Bull. “There is a winner, the second is the first extra. “It’s not always fair, but Formula 1 is not a children’s birthday party,” Vettel recently told “Sport Bild”.

Vettel wants to grab the title in this car. © AFP / LLUIS GENE

Only Schumacher and Niki Lauda have won more races for the Scuderia than the Heppenheimer. But in order to really earn a place of honor in the ancestral gallery of the traditional brand from Maranello, Vettel finally has to get a title. The memory of Kimi Räikkönen's World Cup success in 2007, still the last for Ferrari, has almost faded.

After a lot of upheaval, development and setbacks, Vettel is sure that Ferrari has “all the ingredients together”. Mattia Binotto replaced the rather rumpled cigarette manager Maurizio Arrivabene as team boss at the beginning of the year. The 49-year-old was already involved in Schumacher's title series as an engine engineer and knows the sensitive soul of the most famous racing team very well. “We know what we have to do and how we have to do it,” assures Vettel. Great competition within your own team In his 13th Formula 1 year, the four-time champion also has to face a new challenge internally. His new teammate Charles Leclerc (21) from Monaco is considered a super talent and could already embody the future after Vettel if the German does not finally fulfill the Tifosi's title wish.

In his last year at Red Bull, the Hessian had a young challenger in Daniel Ricciardo, who drove away from him disrespectfully. It was the only season so far in which Vettel lost the duel with a stable rival. Hard work, meticulousness and precision Vettel will have to sharpen his senses if he wants to defeat first Leclerc and then Hamilton. Schumacher once showed what it takes to achieve this. The seven-time world champion's hard work, meticulousness and precision, his unconditional loyalty to the team, but also his certain ruthlessness on the race track are legendary.

“Michael took Ferrari on his shoulders and led the team out of the crisis. He was a leader," said former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone at the end of the preseason and added coolly: "Vettel is not like that." Vettel will have to prove the opposite in order not to end up as a failure in Ferrari history enter into.

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Like Schumacher once did: Vettel wants the title in Ferrari's fifth year

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