Their partnership has already been labelled as being potentially “dangerous” by Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo.
But there are many reasons to believe that Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen can bring the prized silverware back to Maranello.
With the regulations having undergone a massive change, Ferrari thought it best to have two seasoned drivers behind the wheel of their prancing horses rather than a driver who has not won a championship.
In 2009, Raikkonen was sent packing from the red team by President di Montezemolo in order to make room for Alonso.
Four years later it was announced that the Iceman would return to the Scuderia, with the team boss ‘clearing’ the bad blood between the two.
Raikkonen is the only driver to have won the championship for Ferrari, post-Schumacher. Ferrari have seen during the Iceman’s two years at Lotus that his hunger for victories is still there and hence have promised to restore him back to where he was previously.
With Lotus, the Finn finished third in the championship in 2012 with one race victory to his name. Last season proved a more fractious year with his salary being kept from him, as well as a back injury which saw him withdraw from the final two races of the year for back surgery.
We all know that the 2009 championship narrowly came to a close with Raikkonen being the victor by one point. This was his first year with Ferrari, so could he do a repeat in his first season upon returning?
There has been a lot of talk after the supposed ‘tweaking’ of Alonso’s ear by President di Montezemolo that the Spaniard may walk in the near future.
Having now lost his ‘number two’ man Felipe Massa, Alonso will have to work harder this year to secure what has eluded him for the last four years.
It’s fair enough to say that in two out of the four years in which Alonso has failed to secure the title for his team, the opposition’s car was on ‘another planet’.
The year 2012 was supposed to be Ferrari’s, but incidents out of the team’s hands put them three points behind Sebastian Vettel across the chequered flag in Brazil.
No one can deny that the fiery Spaniard is frustrated. But what impact will Raikkonen have on Alonso?
The best thing for Alonso would be if he had a teammate who could push him to do better in qualifying, rather than relying on his lightning starts and team orders to overtake during the race.
And that is what he has now in the form of Raikkonen.
Alonso will have to put aside team politics and his principles of a ‘number one’ and ‘number two’ driver if he is to win the championship this year. Ferrari will only be doing what they feel is in the best interest of the team in a bid to win the Constructors’ Championship.
If Alonso sniffs any favouritism towards Raikkonen, however, then it could be déjà vu 2007.
That’s when Alonso had his one and only year with McLaren. He fell out in spectacular circumstances with team boss Ron Dennis and then-rookie Lewis Hamilton, who put the Spaniard under pressure from the first race of the season.
If Ferrari (mainly Alonso) can avoid any internal struggles this year, then it can quite possibly be a dual-championship season for them.
But everyone has the inkling that there is plenty that can go wrong for Ferrari, and specifically between the drivers.
The technical strength is there for them and there is strong chatter over ‘factory teams having an instant advantage’ in terms of the new power trains.
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