Sebastian Vettel raced alongside an assortment of different teammates during his career in F1, but the four-time world champion says he saw himself in Charles Leclerc during the pair's two years together at Ferrari.
Vettel first partnered with the Monegasque in 2019, and the two drivers immediately worked well together. However, the collaboration occurred at a moment in time in their respective careers that was very different.
Leclerc, a burgeoning your talent, was in his second season of F1 while thoughts of winding down his career were beginning to creep into Vettel's mind after several challenging seasons with the Scuderia.
"In '17, we had a great car, and we fell short," recounted Vettel speaking to F1's Tom Clarkson on the latter's Beyond The Grid podcast.
"[In] '18, we had a great car, we fell short again, at the end. Just both years, we didn't keep the development pace up, and we just fell back, so we got beaten.
"'19 was a bit of an odd year, because the start of the season wasn't, let's say – to me, at least – giving me [or] us the momentum to feel, 'Alright, here we go again'.
"So then you start to think [about] what might have actually been the problem the last couple of years, and maybe there were too many thoughts. At the same time, Charles came in."
Leclerc nearly won his second race with the Scuderia, in Bahrain. But while the young charger's desire was to become a Grand Prix winner, Vettel had bigger ambitions.
"My target was not to just win a race, I've done that," the German said.
"My target was to win the championship and ideally win the championship the way I wanted to win the championship, which is winning many, many races.
"Maybe I lost myself a little bit in that process, and maybe my races here and there weren't the finest.
"But still, I will say the lessons that I had – and I would say some of the races were pretty good – were more important.
"Then coming into the year 2020, obviously, with a pandemic, and it was making room for that voice inside me to grow as well.
"Interesting, but I would just call it life, and I think we all go through that one way or another. I'm no exception, I'm nothing special."
But looking back on his two seasons spent alongside Leclerc, Vettel "really enjoyed" the time he shared with the now five-time Grand Prix winner who through certain aspects reminded him of his younger self.
"[Leclerc was] in a very different time in his career and his life," Vettel said. "And it was funny, because I watched him and we got along really well, I think.
"I really enjoyed the time we spent together.
"He taught me some things, not necessarily about driving, but it was a little bit as if I was looking at my younger self, and it did take a little bit of time to understand that."
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