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The most awaited pairing of this year’s Formula One is that at Ferrari – Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen. Both former world champions are all set to add a different flavour to the rivalries in the sport. When arguably the two most talented drivers in F1 join hands, the results are bound to be explosive.
Still, there is a distinct possibility that Ferrari’s experiment of getting these two together might fail. The president of the Italian giants, Luca di Montezemolo, admitted that the pairing of Alonso and Raikkonen could be very dangerous. On the other hand, former F1 racer Mark Webber said that Alonso needs a stronger teammate to get the best out of him. Ferrari would hope Webber’s analysis comes true.
Here are five reasons that could potentially spell doom for the Alonso-Raikkonen pairing:
1. Battle between the teammates
Both are fighters, both are aggressive when it comes to winning and both hate losing. Until last year, Ferrari had just one driver to focus on since Felipe Massa played the supporting role. But in the 2014 season the story has changed completely; the Prancing Horses would now have to satisfy both their racers. Neither of them would be ready to sacrifice their position for the sake of other.
But Alonso said in a recent interview that he is expecting them to work in a way that would be best for the team, even if it meant sacrificing their personal ambitions. Neither of them so far has shown the willingness to make sacrifices, so it will have to be seen if they can work according to the priority of the team.
2. Ferrari has always traditionally favoured one driver
Ferrari is known to have favoured just one driver out of the two, and this tradition has been followed for a quite long time now. Back in 2000, the year when seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher won his first driver’s title with Ferrari, he was given more preference by the team when compared to his teammates like Rubens Barrichello and Eddie Irvine.
Then arrived Raikkonen in the team, whose wins were more important than Felipe Massa’s. He won the championship in his first year itself with Ferrari. Massa managed to garner the attention from his team in only one year (2008), when he lost the title to Lewis Hamilton by one point. 2010 marked the entry of Alonso as the replacement of Raikkonen but he has failed to win a single driver’s trophy for Ferrari.
This year, both the racers who have tasted their own success and support from the team have paired up. It would be interesting to watch, according to the tradition of Ferrari, who they would favour this time.
Can Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso set aside their egos and work for the benefit of the team?
3. Raikkonen is a ‘difficult’ character
“Just leave me alone, I know what I am doing”. This was said by Raikkonen on the team radio on his way to victory in Abu Dhabi in 2012. It was his first victory after coming back from retirement. Last year, he refused to let Roman Grosjean, his Lotus teammate, pass him in the Korean Grand Prix which led to a heated argument on the radio.
He didn’t take part in the last two races of 2013 because he was apparently not paid by Lotus Renault. At Ferrari, the team principal has to look for a smart way to handle Raikkonen, now that they have decided to get his experience and quirky characteristics into the team.
4. Alonso doesn’t like to be overshadowed
The Spanish fans would hope that history does not repeat. Alonso had left McLaren after just one season because it was very difficult for him to handle the situation of having a strong teammate in Hamilton. Last year, his comments about Ferrari not being able to provide him with a competitive car had led to disturbances in the team.
Alonso obviously wouldn’t tolerate it if he is put under the shadow of Raikkonen. But it’s not Massa this time, so Alonso will have to fight for the first place in Ferrari. This could add to tensions within the team.
5. The odds don’t necessarily favour success with two big names in a single team
F1 history has a number of examples of two star drivers being bunched together in the same team. But apart from Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost at McLaren, where the rivalry between the two legends brought the best out of each which helped the team to win 15 races out of the 16 in 1988, there haven’t been many instances of two star drivers being hugely successful for the team together.
Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, for instance, always had conflicts which were clearly seen on the track; at the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix, Vettel overtook Webber to take the victory, even when he was told not to do so. Back in 1986, the intense rivalry between Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet possibly cost both the drivers, as Alain Prost walked away with the title.
Alonso and Raikkonen would both want to win the championship for Ferrari, so it is going to be interesting to watch how the ‘dangerous’ pair perform in the upcoming season of Formula One. Will they make Ferrari regret the decision of pairing them together, or they will flourish as a team?
