Originally Posted by ACU:
“Its not going to be as smooth as it currently is. Alonso seems to carry a lot of baggage with him. This isnt really a problem, when the team are working around him. As last season proved, he was very complimentary to the team, even though he didnt win the championship. With Kimi arriving, Alonso wont be number 1. So he will have to over-take his team mate, and not get him to move over as is the current situation. Can you imagine, what Kimi would say, if they said they were going to remove the seal on your gearbox, just so alonso can move further up the grid (as in the US last year)? Massa had no choice, but Kimi certainly wouldnt allow that.
Its also apparent from Alonsos 'genius' comment, and his recent comments in the media (which Montezemolo had to to talk to him about), that something was not right between him and team. Maybe he knew a while back that the team were in talks with Kimi. Praising of Massa (even though the slipstreaming didnt work). To be honest I have not heard Alonso heap that amount of praise on Massa before. Maybe it was his last ditched attempt at trying to persuade Ferrari on keeping Massa.
One thing is for sure, if Kimi does go to Ferrari, Vettels chances of winning the title next year, just got a little bit easier. His main rival for the last two seasons has been Alonso. With Kimi in the team, Alonso and Kimi will take points of each other - which will only help Vettel. Unless another team can step up, and challenge RBR, they are going to find it relatively easy next year as well.”
“Its not going to be as smooth as it currently is. Alonso seems to carry a lot of baggage with him. This isnt really a problem, when the team are working around him. As last season proved, he was very complimentary to the team, even though he didnt win the championship. With Kimi arriving, Alonso wont be number 1. So he will have to over-take his team mate, and not get him to move over as is the current situation. Can you imagine, what Kimi would say, if they said they were going to remove the seal on your gearbox, just so alonso can move further up the grid (as in the US last year)? Massa had no choice, but Kimi certainly wouldnt allow that.
Its also apparent from Alonsos 'genius' comment, and his recent comments in the media (which Montezemolo had to to talk to him about), that something was not right between him and team. Maybe he knew a while back that the team were in talks with Kimi. Praising of Massa (even though the slipstreaming didnt work). To be honest I have not heard Alonso heap that amount of praise on Massa before. Maybe it was his last ditched attempt at trying to persuade Ferrari on keeping Massa.
One thing is for sure, if Kimi does go to Ferrari, Vettels chances of winning the title next year, just got a little bit easier. His main rival for the last two seasons has been Alonso. With Kimi in the team, Alonso and Kimi will take points of each other - which will only help Vettel. Unless another team can step up, and challenge RBR, they are going to find it relatively easy next year as well.”
See, I'm not sure that Alonso would have as much of an issue with Raikkonen as he would with someone like Hamilton and Vettel. Yes Raikkonen will be much more of a test than Massa and will beat him on occasion but Kimi isn't someone who cares about the politics of the team and gets involved in spats, he'll just drive the car as fast as he can and won't care about what happens off-track.
It will be very interesting to see how Alonso reacts to this though (if indeed true). I personally don't think it will be a huge issue for him, 2007 was a long time ago and he's matured a lot since then, and he'll know exactly what to expect from Kimi and know he'll have to drive well to beat him (I think a lot of what got his back up about Hamilton was the fact he'd got himself into the mindset that as a rookie Lewis wouldn't be a threat and was then shocked when he proved to be rather better than he'd expected, whereas with Kimi he knows how good he is), plus with other strong contenders in other teams he'll know he'll have to get his head down and concentrate on beating them if he is to win that third title.
Part of me does wonder what the motive behind Ferrari signing Raikkonen would be. Is it a feeling on their side that Alonso's getting too big for his boots and that he doesn't call the shots at the team? Do Ferrari believe from experience that Kimi won't beat Alonso (they'll have the data from his first stint at the team) but is a much better option than Massa in cleaning up in the second car? Could it even be as a stopgap until Bianchi's ready to take over the second seat in a couple of years? It's definitely a strange one, although it will be fascinating to see how it plays out next season.




