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‘Iceman’ will race for Ferrari next year
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Kimi Raikkonen will race for Ferrari next season in a two-year deal that takes the former world champion back to the glamour team he left in 2009 and creates the strongest pairing in Formula One.
Ferrari said in a statement yesterday that the 33-year-old ‘Iceman’, currently driving for Lotus, will replace Brazilian Felipe Massa alongside Spain’s double world champion Fernando Alonso.
“Scuderia Ferrari announces that it has reached an agreement with Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn will join Fernando Alonso in the driver line-up for the next two racing seasons,” the statement said.
There were no quotes from the famously taciturn Finn, whose future teammate had made clear he would have been happy to continue with Massa. The Spaniard has a contract to the end of 2016.
Massa, championship runner-up to Lewis Hamilton in 2008, had already announced on social media that he would not be driving for the Italian team in 2014.
Ferrari last had two world champions in their lineup in 1953, when Italians Alberto Ascari and Giuseppe Farina were together.
Raikkonen and Alonso should be a force to be reckoned with, although there could also be fireworks.
In contrast, other top teams have opted to pair a champion with a driver whose resume is less glittering.
Red Bull have a new face in Australian Daniel Ricciardo, who has yet to stand on the podium, as teammate to triple champion Sebastian Vettel while 2009 winner Jenson Button has Sergio Perez alongside him at McLaren. The Mexican has yet to win a race.
Germany’s Nico Rosberg, who partners Hamilton at Mercedes, has been on the top step of the podium twice this season but only three times in his career.
Since the arrival in 1996 of Michael Schumacher, the seven time-world champion Raikkonen replaced at the end of 2006, Ferrari has preferred to have one clearly dominant driver in its lineup.
That was not the case in 2008, when Massa almost won the title, but Alonso wasted no time in stamping his authority on the team when he replaced Raikkonen.
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