Vettel drove a lot earlier for Ferrari if it was up to Schumacher

F1 News

5 April 2020 at 13:55
  • GPblog.com

Sebastian Vettel is currently driving for Ferrari, but if it had been up to Michael Schumacher, the German would have joined the team a lot earlier. Luca di Montezemolo says so.

Despite that Kimi Raikkonen had one year left on his contract, the Finn decided to leave Ferrari after the 2009 season. The team had to look for a new driver to fill the seat and had a number of options.

According to Luca di Montezemolo, Sebastian Vettel was one of the options. "Michael Schumacher tried to convince us to get Vettel to Ferrari before he could make the jump from Toro Rosso to Red Bull Racing", says the former Ferrari boss to Sky Sports 24.

Too immature for Ferrari

However, the Maranello team did not choose the German, who would then win four world championships with Red Bull Racing. "At the time we thought he was too immature, so we preferred Fernando Alonso."

Despite the success of Vettel, Montezemolo does not think that Ferrari made the wrong choice by choosing the Spaniard. "Fernando, apart from certain aspects of his character, has achieved great victories with us and he has lost two titles in the last race".