Robert Doornbos: What Kimi Raikkonen – Charles Leclerc move proves about Ferrari. Robert Doornbos: What Kimi Raikkonen - Charles Leclerc move proves about Ferrari.

Sebastian Vettel remains the main man at Ferrari but the Italian constructors will not always listen to him anymore.

That is the opinion of former F1 driver and Ziggo Sport pundit Robert Doornbos, who says the decision to swap Kimi Raikkonen for Charles Leclerc is proof.

Sebastian Vettel began the 2018 campaign with high hopes that he could end Mercedes’ stranglehold on the World Drivers’ Championship title.

And he went toe-to-toe with closest rival Lewis Hamilton for the first half of the season and came back with a bang after the summer break.

However, Vettel’s Belgian Grand Prix victory has been followed by four straight race wins for Hamilton, in Italy, Singapore, Russia and Japan respectively.

Sebastian Vettel looks set to see his hopes of F1 glory ended by Hamilton at next weekend’s United States Grand Prix in Texas.

And that means he will have to go back to the drawing board ahead of 2019, when he will be driving alongside Leclerc.

Leclerc is poised replace the veteran Kimi Raikkonenwho, in turn, will take his seat at Sauber.

Doornbos, who raced for Minardi and Red Bull in F1, has now offered his take on where Vettel stands at Ferrari.

And while he believes the German remains the No 1 driver, he says Vettel no longer has the same sway as before.

“Seb, I think, also feels the pressure within Ferrari,” Doornbos told Dutch outlet Ziggo Sport.

“The whole team is still around him and they are not going to make it happen again.

“It has also gone all the way so quickly. After 10 races Vettel was eight points ahead of Hamilton and seven races later he is 67 points behind and is done. Hamilton has taken home 168 of the 175 points from the past [five] races!

“It must hurt Vettel that this year the team from Maranello really had the car to fight for the World Championship, but due to team and driver’s mistakes it will not be him again.

“The fact that they have chosen Charles Leclerc for next season and not Kimi, as desired by Seb, indicates that they no longer always listen to him. I always understand the wish of the late Sergio Marchionne to put Leclerc in that other car. Vettel has to be challenged and Kimi does not [do that]. So they put a young dog next to him and then we see what happens. The German has now had four years, time for a fresh wind.” – he concluded.