01/04/2019
NEWS STORY
It is said that those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it, and in the case of Sebastian Vettel that would certainly appear to be the case.
At the end of 2018, we had doubts as to whether he might 'do a Rosberg', and announce his retirement at season end, such was his demeanour following a string of unnecessary errors. Indeed, fearing Vettel had lost his hunger, we suggested that Ferrari would have been best placed to drop the German and retain Kimi Raikkonen as mentor to newcomer Charles Leclerc.
Though he seemed strong in testing, there was no mistaking the fact that in Melbourne, Vettel was still missing that spark, the feeling becoming all the more obvious over the course of the Bahrain weekend.
While there were flashes of the Vettel of old yesterday, they were all too brief, and his spin while battling Hamilton was, as the German admits, an unnecessary mistake.
Countryman Nico Rosberg, on pundit duty for Sky Sports, though praising Ferrari for allowing its drivers to race one another, was highly critical of Vettel.
"Let's applaud Ferrari because that's what we all want to see," he told Sky Sports. "It was so cool to see. When did we last see Ferraris go head-to-head like that on track? It's been a while so that was awesome."
Saying the race was "Beautifully driven" by Leclerc" and he was "gutted for him", Rosberg admitted disappointment with Vettel.
"For Sebastian, this is a really tough one," he said, "because not only did he ruin his own race but he has a team mate who has been delivering unbelievably well, who is so damn strong and we should all expect it to continue like that.
"I can't believe it," he said of the German's mistake. "We've seen exactly the same Sebastian Vettel again today as we saw all throughout the end of last year.
"First of all the team messes up the strategy in qualifying, he gets angry, then come the race, one wheel-to-wheel battle and he spins it away completely on his own and loses the whole weekend.
"He needs to find a way out of that now," added Rosberg, "Sebastian has a real big challenge on his hands."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Sakhir, here.