Kimi & Fernando the right choice for Ferrari

Aside from all the regulations and rule changes in Formula One for next season, the most intriguing aspect of 2014 will be at Ferrari.

Ferrari have moved away from their vision and usual team policy of building their team around one driver.

The Maranello team had huge success with this strategy with Michael Schumacher, but success hasn’t followed for Fernando Alonso, despite many believing he is the best all-round driver of his current generation.

So moving into the 2014 FIA Formula One World Championship season, Ferrari opted to take a different approach.

With numerous regulation changes, F1 will be witnessing the biggest shake-up the sport has seen in decades.

Ferrari’s plan to get ahead in this market was to sign up two former world champions with Kimi Raikkonen returning to the team to drive alongside Alonso.

‘It was a rational choice, based on the need to have an expert driver pairing, with the one aim of it doing well for Ferrari. I hope the track will show that it was the right choice,’ Stefano Domenicali told the Ferrari official website as quoted by Sky Sports.

The thought is that in the factory, in the simulator and on the test track having the experienced heads of both Kimi and Fernando should aid Ferrari’s development.

Aiding the teams development should see a faster, more competitive car, that should see an improvement in results on the track.

But what then happens on the track if the two drivers are in direct competition with one another?

‘How will we manage them? Decisions are always carefully considered, but they always have the same aim, which is that the sporting decisions are taken to reach the team’s goals, as the interest of the team always comes before all else. Decisions we have taken in the past have always been reached in this spirit.

‘I have found a more mature Kimi, more closely knit to the team. He comes to Maranello almost every week to work with the engineers. He knows his worth and he knows what team he has returned to and what challenges he will face, having a world champion like Alonso alongside him for whom he has respect and he will have to adapt to working with him.

‘Fernando is extremely intelligent and has managed to stay ahead in whatever car he has driven. He has an ability to interpret the race and to read it in an amazing way and I think he will make the most of the new regulations, which will require some stages of the race to be managed in a different way. We feel close to him partly because it was such a long time ago that we decided to invest in him.’