Sunday 21 December 2014

The timing was right for Alonso to leave Ferrari

(McLaren-Honda)

Former Scuderia Ferrari driver Felipe Massa believes the time was right for Fernando Alonso to leave the Maranello based outfit. The Spaniard joins Jenson Button at McLaren-Honda from the 2015 season onwards following five seasons with Ferrari.

Massa, who was forced out of Ferrari at the end of the 2013 Formula One season in favour of Kimi Raikkonen is now a Williams Martini Racing Team driver alongside Valtteri Bottas believes that maybe during his time at Maranello, Ferrari didn’t give Alonso the best car. Equally the Brazilian feels that maybe Alonso didn't provide the Italian team with the opportunity to grow.

Following Alonso’s departure from the team they announced a whole host of changes within the management structure.

Pat Fry and Nikolas Tombazis have left the team, while it also believed that Fernando Alonso’s race engineer Andre Stella will join the Spaniard at McLaren however this has yet to be confirmed. Former Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team performance engineer, Jock Clear is expected to join Ferrari in the New Year.

Massa feels that losing a driver of Alonso’s talent could hurt Ferrari, however the team are gaining a driver with equal talent if not more in Sebastian Vettel as he has four world champions to Alonso’s two. Massa hopes however, that Ferrari do well in the future.

© Ben Johnston 2014


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