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Can Alonso And Raikkonen Get On At Ferrari Next Season?

For many
weeks, it was quite a stir finding out where Kimi Raikkonen would go for 2014,
and there were many rumors going around thinking that since he was friends with
current World champion Sebastian Vettel, he would be heading to Red Bull to
replace Mark Webber. The idea seemed pretty good for the Finn, but at the end,
Raikkonen felt that after that slot was given to Australian Daniel Riccardo,
the only chances that he had would be to go to Ferrari or to drive with Lotus
for another season.

However,
last week it all came together as the world learned about the departure of
Felipe Massa and the emergence for next year of Raikkonen, who would be joining
Fernando Alonso at Ferrari. But right away, questions began to fly around the
paddock about whether or not Raikkonen made a big, mistake by signing with the
tifosi instead of trying to remain with the Enstone team, which he gave two
victories and a lot of finishes (not finnishes).

But the
trouble that tipped Raikkonen towards Ferrari is one thing that a lot of drivers
think about and why they are there: money. Apparently, the cash strapped Lotus
team did not have enough money to pay the Finn on time, and that might have
been the tip that Raikkonen needed to want to leave the team. Since the
prancing horse had plenty of money, Raikkonen would get his payment on time.

But what
happens now is how will the Finn get along with the Spaniard?? It is obvious
that both drivers are now in their prime, and both would love to have another
world and constructors championship for their team, but how can they get along,
and will they??

There have
been many riffs before among teammates and most of it can be proven at McLaren,
as Alosno could tell you. The famous one was with Alain Prost and the late
Aryton Senna, who had so much talent between both of them that one had to go.
With Alosno and Lewis Hamilton, it was just about as bad, which led to Alosno
returning back to the team that he won two world titles with: Renault.

Could this
happen again?? It certainly does not want to occur again, with the eyes of the
people, fans and the management of Ferrari would be almost too embarrassed to
have a rift that would make Luca Montemozolo fly off the handle.

It has been
a while since Ferrari have won anything on the formula one grid. Yes, Alonso
had a fantastic race in China and especially at his home race in Spain, where
he won with aggression and fine speed, not to mention his home crowd cheering
him on. But Alonso likes to be a team leader, and if the ideas of Red Bull don’t
work for combined leaders, what will happen when Riccardo wants to challenge
Vettel next season? The combined team
leaders will work at a place like Mercedes, but if Hamilton does well there and
he is improving, how will it be when Nico Rosberg decides to take a chance of
winning? It is true that this team has drivers that can get along better than
the others, so Ferrari can certainly step up and try to do the same. Raikkonen
though, can be a problem mainly because he had a lot of freedom at Lotus, and
the idea of doing what he really wanted at Enstone might not look so good at
Marenello unless the team can give him the same kind of treatment.

So watch out
race fans, next season won’t just see the difference of the new turbo energy efficient
engines, the excitement can also be directed at two drivers who have a
combination of two world titles among them; and if they get along, great for Ferrari,
but if they cannot, someone might have to go.

There is
still Lotus, Fernando Alonso, to go to.

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