(© Ben Johnston 2015)
Scuderia Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen believes that going
into the 2015 Formula One season there is better atmosphere in the team compared
to last year when he returned to Maranello.
The outfit endured its worst season in Formula One since
1993 finishing the year in fourth place behind Williams Martini Racing,
Infiniti Red Bull Racing and Mercedes, this prompted sweeping changes within
the structure of the team with Chairman Luca Di Montezemelo leaving the company
along with Team Principal Marco Mattiacci.
Sergio Marchionne has now taken charge of the Formula One
operation as FIAT and Ferrari Chairman and installed Maurizio Arrivabene as the
new Team Principal. Arrivabene joined Ferrari from long term sponsor Philip
Morris so he knows the Maranello based outfit inside out. His wife also works
for the team in the communications department.
The biggest change within the team however has been the
departure of the man who replaced Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso has re-joined
McLaren with Sebastian Vettel joining the Iceman and this can only be a good
thing as the Finn and the German get on very well together however it has been
pointed out that it was the same situation with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg
when Hamilton joined the Brackley based outfit and that relationship became
strained.
Scuderia Ferrari however do not foresee any problems arising
between Vettel or Raikkonen and the drivers don’t see any reason why they would
have issues with one another.
Raikkonen also has a new race engineer this season with Dave
Greenwood joining the team from Marussia and it has been noted that Raikkonen
tends to work better with English engineers having had an extremely successful
partnership with his former Lotus engineer Mark Slade.
The Finn also believes that the team have done a great job
over the winter and the Finn feels that the team will be able to achieve the
results that they want and indeed they deserve over the course of the season as
long as they can continue to improve the car.
© Ben Johnston 2015
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