Is Raikkonen going to overtake Alonso as the sole Number 1 driver for Ferrari? (Photo courtesy of ‘indiatimes.com’)
5 days ago, the BBC reported that Kimi Raikkonen was moving teams from Lotus Motorsport to Scuderia Ferrari. Here we are today, and as we now know it, next season Ferrari will have two number one drivers. This has created some speculation as to how the relationship between the drivers and Ferrari is going to work, most notably, what is Fernando Alonso’s role now, and will he get all the support he feels he needs?
I can understand Alonso’s concern. After driving with Felipe Massa for 4 years, I’d be upset if there was now an actual title contender on my team. Let’s face it, they don’t call Raikkonen ‘The Iceman’ for no reason. He is as cool as you like, and the main point, he gets the job done. I think that even if he wasn’t from Finland he’d still be dubbed Iceman, he’s just that good.
Alonso on the other hand is a little more flarey. With one more world championship than Raikkonen, some might say he’s the more established driver. But unlike Raikkonen who’s known to be quite introvert and focused on a race weekend, Alonso likes to show off his various card tricks. Just one of his ways to relax, and it shows this season, with Alonso pipping Raikkonen in the standings by 35 points, but with 7 races left of this season a couple of unfortunate retirements is all it takes and everything is level between these two.
The most interesting thing for me next season is to see their relationship. These two get on well with each other. But then again, a team order is all it takes for a partnership to become strained. Look at Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel. These two were both more or less considered to be the Number 1 drivers in Red Bull. They used to get on quite well, but Vettel decided not to listen to a team order when Webber was leading him in Sepang. The team ordered both drivers to hold position after the final pit stops of that race. However, Vettel chose to ignore the order and drive straight past his team-mate with 13 laps to go to take victory. And that’s the question out of this new Ferrari partnership. Are they going to be true professionals, or is it a case of who’s got the bigger ego?
Both of these drivers are long standing veterans of Formula 1. They started their Formula 1 careers in 2001. They’re both roughly the same age (Alonso 32, Raikkonen 33). But most importantly, they’re both World Champions. Alonso is more than likely not winning the title this season. For him, it’s more about consolidating for next season. And consolidate he will, he has to; because it’s going certainly to be an explosive season next year.
thomas butler blog 