Schumacher and Vettel are very similar: Arrivabene

Ferrari boss, Maurizio Arrivabene, has stated that the Scuderia’s two legendary German recruits, Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel, are very similar to each other. He also made a great prediction about the latter.

“I think he [Vettel] is similar to Schumacher: he is German, but very Italian inside and destined for Maranello from an early age,”  said Arrivabene. “And I am sure that sooner or later Sebastian Vettel will win the World Championship at the wheel of Ferrari.

Vettel committed a lot of mistakes at various points to throw away a championship lead and Arrivabene admitted that it looks almost impossible to win now. “It has become a mission impossible [this year], but it’s not over,” he said.

However, he also retained a slight ray of hope. “In Austin, however, we do not leave beaten, I want to say it clearly.” The Scuderia fans have been unimpressed with the slump and had even gone as far as starting a petition to get Alonso back at the team.

Alonso famously never won a championship with Ferrari, though he did come close in 2010 and 2012. It was envisaged as a dream partnership but Ferrari just could not develop the right car to challenge the might of Red Bull in the initial part of the decade.

What Arrivabene says does have an element of truth to it. When the young Vettel won his first championship in 2010, the obvious similarities between him and Schumacher began to crop up as fans started to take notice.

He went on to emulate Schumacher to an extent too, winning four consecutive world championships but has stalled since then, with wins coming few and far between. This year, the situation seemed to have been tailor-made for Ferrari to break their hoodoo.

Now with only four races to go, it seems they have blown away that chance and will have to concentrate on being equally, if not more, strong next year. And in Vettel and Leclerc, they’ll have a tough time deciding whom to back.