Sebastian Vettel’s performance at the Bahrain Grand Prix has raised serious questions – about his series of unforced errors, about his status within Ferrari and about his claim to be a potential world champion this year.
A spin while battling with Lewis Hamilton and a weekend on which he was out-paced by his new team-mate were exactly what Vettel did not need just two races into the new season.
The German came into 2019 needing to bury memories of 2018, when Ferrari had the fastest car for much of the season. Vettel had it within his hands to win a fifth world title, but a series of errors cost him that chance.
A crash out of the lead in Germany, and spins in Italy, Japan and the United States all left a lot of doubts.
As such, Vettel would have welcomed the winter break by the time Abu Dhabi came around last November.