ROME: Fernando Alonso was kept fully informed of plans to sign Kimi Raikkonen and he and the team will benefit from the Finn’s return to Ferrari next season, Luca di Montezemolo said on Tuesday.
The Ferrari chairman compared Raikkonen to retired triple world champion Niki Lauda, who took a two-year break from Formula One in 1980/81 and then returned to win another championship.
Raikkonen, world champion in 2007, left Ferrari at the end of 2009 – departing a year early with a hefty payoff to make way for Alonso – and returned with Lotus in 2012 as a title contender again after two years out.
Ferrari announced last week he had signed a two year deal for 2014/15.
“We are not so masochistic as to sign a driver without telling Alonso,” Montezemolo, who worked with Lauda when the Austrian won two titles for Ferrari in the 1970s, told a newspaper. “Fernando was always kept up to date about the choice of Raikkonen.”
The pairing of two champions is a big change for Ferrari but Montezemolo, who has spoken in the past about not wanting “two roosters in the same hen house”, said the alternative of a young driver was too risky in a season like 2014 with major rule changes.
“Raikkonen is the strongest of all, with Alonso, (Sebastian) Vettel and (Lewis) Hamilton,” he added. “And Alonso is the first to be satisfied with his arrival.” (Reuters)