Ferrari signs up Kimi Raikkonen for 2014

Five years and a 20-million-euro compensation package later, and Finnish Formula 1 driver Kimi Raikkonen will be donning Ferrari overalls once more. The Italian team confirmed the signing of the driver for the 2014 season on Wednesday, as a replacement for Brazilian team veteran Felipe Massa, who announced on Tuesday night that his home Grand Prix, on November 24, would be his last with the team.

Raikkonen raced for Ferrari from 2007 to 2009, and won his only driver’s championship with them in his first season. His departure from the team at the end of the 2009 season – leading to a two-year hiatus from the sport, during which time he tried his hand at rally driving – was to make way for Spanish star Fernando Alonso, who is yet to win a championship with Ferrari in the three seasons he has completed there so far. Barring a dramatic turnaround of his fortunes, Alonso is unlikely to secure a championship victory in 2013, either.

The fact that Raikkonen’s contract with his current team, Lotus, was due to expire at the end of December, combined with questions about the long-term viability of the project, opened the door for the 33-year-old’s return.

His presence in the team is likely to shake things up considerably. Until now, Alonso had been partnered with Felipe Massa, who on more than one occasion has occupied a role of support driver for Alonso. At last year’s US Grand Prix, for example, the team elected to break the seal on Massa’s gearbox in order for him to incur a penalty. The resultant changes on the starting grid meant that Alonso moved up a place, having qualified behind Massa, and also put him on the clean side of the track. And just this weekend at the Italian Grand Prix, Massa was put on the track ahead of Alonso in qualifying, with the aim of slipstreaming him and helping him secure a higher place on the grid.

But now Ferrari will be dealing with two former champions in their garages, with Alonso having taken the 2005 and 2006 titles with Renault, and Raikkonen’s aforementioned victory with Ferrari in 2007. The team has not had such a situation since 1953, when Nino Farina and Alberto Ascari raced together.

Such a partnership would have seemed unthinkable until recently, given the importance and the influence that Alonso had been granted within Ferrari. But relations between the Spaniard and his employers seem to have been increasingly strained over the course of this season, after the team president, Luca di Montezemolo, publicly stated that he had admonished Alonso for comments he made to reporters requesting a faster car.

What’s more, Alonso has not had to cope with a truly competitive teammate since 2007, when he made an ill-fated move to McLaren. During that season he was paired with Lewis Hamilton, who, despite being in his rookie year, put in a sterling performance that nearly saw him win the championship. Clearly uncomfortable with the situation, Alonso ended up negotiating his exit from the team before the season was up, opting to return to Renault.