Coulthard says Ferrari right to oust Raikkonen

Ferrari did the right thing in ending Sebastian Vettel's "stress free phase" with the Maranello team, according to David Coulthard.

For 2019, Ferrari replaced Vettel's preferred teammate Kimi Raikkonen with the young charger Charles Leclerc.

Coulthard told Auto Bild that it ramped up the pressure for Vettel.

"Charles does what he has to do," said the former F1 driver. "He wants to be faster. If he sees a gap, he goes for it," Coulthard told Auto Bild.

"Sebastian's goal is different: to make the Ferrari a winning car. Anything other than winning is not good enough.

"It's easier for Charles, because all he has to do is be faster than Sebastian and he proves he can beat a quadruple world champion and has a great future.

"Sebastian had a stress-free phase with Kimi, but it would have been wrong for Ferrari to keep Kimi.

"We had Senna and Prost, Lewis and Nico, and now Charles and Seb. Just look at Red Bull this year -- Max gets zero pressure from Pierre Gasly, and that's not good," the Scot added.