(Formula.Ferrari.com)
As the sun set on the 2014 Formula One season at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix the Ferrari Formula One team are one outfit who go into the Winter break with an incredible amount of work to do to ensure that their 2015 car is competitive and will enable Kimi Raikkonen and new signing Sebastian Vettel to challenge for the world championship from the very first race of 2015 in Melbourne Australia which gets underway in 112 days.
Fernando Alonso went into Sunday's race after the Italian team announced on Thursday that after five seasons and 96 Grand Prix the Spaniard would leave Maranello at the end of the 2014 season. Moments after they announced that Alonso's departure they confirmed that quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel would be joining Kimi Raikkonen for 2015.
Ferrari have had a terrible season by their standards having failed to score a single victory while collecting just two podium finishes for Fernando Alonso which came in China and at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The team also replace team principal Stefano Domenicali with Marco Mattiacci who himself is expected to be replaced next week by Philip Morris Vice President Maurizio Arrivabene. The team are set to bring in 60 new personnel to boost their technical team. Fernando Alonso finished today's season finale in Abu Dhabi in 9th place ending the season in 6th place on 161 points. Speaking following the race Alonso stated:
'Today, my time with Ferrari comes to an end, as does a very tricky season, in which, even if we were unable to do much against the technical dominance of our rivals, we fought all the way to the very end, all of us did our utmost, putting our hearts into it.
Today’s race was difficult to manage but at the same time it was very emotional for me; after five years it’s not easy to say farewell to a team with which I have grown so much over the past five years, both as a driver and as a person. I thank all the Ferraristi for their support. I will miss the team, the fans and Italy. Even though we are going our separate ways, I feel I have lived through a unique experience which any Formula 1 driver would have loved to have had.'
Kimi Raikkonen went into today's race following an extremely disappointing first season back at the Maranello team having failed to match Fernando Alonso and managing to out-qualify the Spaniard on just three occasions including for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix,
The Iceman failed to score a podium with his best result of the season coming at the Belgian Grand Prix where he finished the race in fourth place. The Finn admitted that the F14-T just did not suit him this season however moving forward he is confident that the team will make progress over the winter as he is encouraged by the data that he has seen from the wind tunnel in relation to the 2015 car.
The Finn ended the season in 12th place in the championship on 55 points equal with McLaren's Kevin Magnussen and finished the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 10th place. Speaking following the race he stated:
'It was a very difficult race but we knew right from the beginning that this track would be tough for us. The start was good but then, at the first stop, I already lost a few places and from then on I couldn’t move up the order. The car handled well and I had no particular problem, but today we lacked the speed we needed to attack. All season we have faced a series of difficulties which we put a lot of effort into solving and we learned a lot from that. We know which direction we need to work in to be competitive as soon as possible and I have absolute faith in the team.'
Ferrari finished the season in fourth place in the Constructors championship on 216 points, 104 behind Williams Martini Racing who finished the race in third place.
© Ben Johnston 2014
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