The Spaniard was brought in as Raikkonen’s replacement in 2010 as a clear No
1, the totem around whom the team would be built. But it has become
abundantly clear that the relationship has hit a rocky patch. How rocky is
not yet clear.
Alonso made no bones about the fact that he would have preferred the more
compliant Felipe Massa to stay for another season. The team ignored his
wishes.
However “happy” the double world champion now claims to be about the fact that
Raikkonen has joined the team, he knows his task will be a lot harder
against a driver whose consistent speed is part of the reason Lotus
are so broke (Raikkonen finished in the points a record 27 times in a row
costing the Enstone team €50,000 per point). And against a driver with whom
he will have to share top billing.
“Obviously I would not have signed if I was not happy on that [score],”
Raikkonen nods. Is it any wonder that McLaren are now chancing their arm
with an attempt to woo Alonso away from Maranello? Could they yet succeed?
Predictably enough, Raikkonen has little time for such speculation. “I don’t
know what will happen [with Alonso],” he says. “I’m pretty sure he has a
contract. You would have to ask Ferrari. I have no interest to comment on
that.”
You get the impression Raikkonen does not much care either way. To him the
reason he is going back to Ferrari is straightforward: they represent his
best chance of adding another world title to the one he won in 2007, in his
first year with the Scuderia. And they will pay him.
“It’s not just that,” he says of the money. “I felt that Ferrari really wanted
me and I had good memories from there. I think I got what I wanted in the
end. I’m very happy with my decision.”
As for his potential partnership with Alonso, Raikkonen is equally phlegmatic.
He admits he has not yet spoken to the Spaniard about his move but says he
has no qualms about the pair working on an equal footing.
“There are always a lot of people making a lot of talk,” he says. “I don’t
really know Fernando away from the track but talking to him at the track
over many years we always had a good relationship and good respect for each
other. I am sure we are old enough if there are problems to be able to sort
them out.
“When I was there last time [driving alongside Massa from 2007-2009] there was
no No 1 and No 2. Obviously that has changed over the last few years but I
know what will happen and what I will get, so I have no worries.
“If at the end of the year one driver has a much better chance [of winning the
title] then obviously it is an easy choice [to help the other one]. It is a
normal thing that this happens.”
And who will win? Not a flicker of a smile. “It will be interesting with the
new [engine] rules,” he mumbles. “It’s hard to know what will happen.”
Like him or loathe him, Raikkonen is a unique character. Some of his peers
find his attitude obnoxious; one of the younger drivers told this newspaper,
before Raikkonen got the Ferrari gig, that he did not think they would
re-hire him because “Kimi is a d**k”.
His maverick approach to his craft, the open dislike of the media and PR, the
monosyllabic interviews, the radio exchanges in which he tells his team to
shut up and stop bothering him, have succeeded in making him a cult figure.
If his attitude sometimes strays into arrogance, then at least no one can
accuse him of lacking character. Or of being anything other than a proper
racer. This, remember, is a man who has entered snowmobile races in a
gorilla suit under the pseudonym James Hunt, who has his own Moto-cross
World Championship team, who took two years out of Formula One to go
rallying. Raikkonen admits he is keen for more, but says that permission to
indulge his need for extracurricular speed “was not part of the discussions
with Ferrari”.
Raikkonen is one of the bona fide stars of Formula One. It will be fascinating
to watch his second coming at Ferrari, whoever is racing alongside him.