Kimi Raikkonen is about to be announced as Felipe Massa’s
replacement at Ferrari and will join Fernando Alonso in probably the strongest
driver line up in Formula 1. He will sign a one year contract for 2014 with an option for 2015 according to the BBC.
Kimi would have preferred to remain with Lotus, the team is
pretty much set up around him, but assurances on budget and technical personnel
have been slow in coming. Lotus boss Eric Boullier says he’s hoping these
assurances can be provided next week but it’s all come too late.
Ferrari already has everything in place including the
recently acquired James Allison, former technical director at Lotus. I’m not
sure it’s a good idea to step away from Lotus yet, but in the new era of
Formula 1 next year, resources are going to matter, and not many teams have
more money than Ferrari.
Kimi won’t care that he’s partnering Alonso, but I’m pretty
sure Alonso will feel just a little bit peeved that a driver with the status of
Kimi, and the last Ferrari champion no less, is being parachuted into the team.
Looking at Kimi and Fernando’s results against Felipe, it is
easy to think that Ferrari believe they are getting
a driver who will be a
decent and more consistent back up. But let’s not delude ourselves here. Felipe
was a different driver when he partnered Kimi. Just as Kimi seemed to lose a
bit of motivation after he won the title despite some still very strong
performances.
No, Alonso knows that Kimi is a threat and we know how he
deals with threats in his own team. Usually by throwing his toys out of the
pram if things don’t go his way; he already appears frustrated with his team in
recent times as the success they are meant to have has failed to come.
Although he does seem to handle things better now perhaps the rumour of Alonso returning to Lotus (formally
Renault where he won his two titles) isn’t so bizarre after all. The Spaniard
works best when everything is focused around him and even if he has the beating of the Finn, he'll be aware some of the focus will be taken away from him. For Kimi’s part he works best
when he can just turn up and drive. He won’t be able to be as casual at Ferrari
as he has been at Lotus.
An Alonso/Kimi line up then? It’s not something Alonso will like
but he’ll put on a brave face. And can you imagine Kimi’s response if he’s told
to move over? Kimi isn't a political animal, he'll just want to get on with it and know he has the same opportunities. If he gets beaten, so be it. Alonso won't operate like that, and if he gets beaten regularly, he'll get frustated. Ferrari are a two car team again, there’s potential fireworks from at least one side of the garage.
all photo's from autosport.com
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