Whether or not Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen stay at the Italian team is not really up for debate according to the marque’s leader, Luca di Montezemolo, telling BBC:
“Of course, as is the case every summer, there is unfounded gossip about alleged problems with senseless rumours bandied about, such as the ones relating to Alonso’s contract,â€
Of course we could consider them silly or goofy stories like Progressive’s “Flo†guessing who’s going where or bundling Ferrari’s driver package. But are they silly?
Many suspect that most driver contracts have performance clauses that work both ways. The team has options should the driver not perform vice versa. Many suggest that Alonso could exercise his clause if a better offer is made with more money and more opportunity.
For a team that has always sought the best drivers, letting Alonso wither on the vine is not a good thing because he’s not Eddie the Eagle out there, he’s liked the human version of an entire GNC supplement store on Red Bull. Ferrari would do well to retain Alonso because they don’t get much better or bigger profile than the double champion.
As for Raikkonen, he knows how to drive but he hasn’t sorted this year’s chassis and that could have one of two effects. As we saw at Lotus, Kimi was an integral part of the team in developing that car and became a clear leader. Ferrari has a clear leader now and it remains to be seen how motivated Kimi will be in sorting out his issues with the car.
Kimi is a professional but he’s also not one to get too emotionally invested in causes bigger than himself so Ferrari may be wise to put all eggs in the Alonso basket and a new egg in the remaining seat should Kimi not work out in 2015.
Regardless, Ferrari are making changes…big changes:
“We are making in-depth changes on both the organisational side, in our approach and culture,†he said.
“We have taken important decisions and have made significant progress, even if, at the moment, the results of all this work are not always visible.
“The aim is to get back to being as competitive as we were before in the shortest possible time.â€
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